


Safe & Sound

by DRAQIIN (tuomniia)



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Friends to Lovers, HAROLD THEY'RE LESBIANS, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, NB!Catra, OR IS IT, Post-Apocalypse, Slow Burn, Trauma, Unrequited, Zombie Apocalypse, but close enough, but it isn't, it does get a little bloody sometimes, rated mature for the violence and themes, there is not smut here, they're forced to survive together, they're not really zombies, we start as a highschool au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:21:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 39,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24964426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuomniia/pseuds/DRAQIIN
Summary: "Just close your eyes, the sun is going downYou'll be alright, no one can hurt you nowCome morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound"Adora knew high school wasn't supposed to be easy, but a wildly dangerous pandemic wasn't something she had been expecting. Years later and Adora is living as comfortably as she can in a safe zone, doing her part by going out on runs into the outside to bring back much needed supplies. She's good at it, and it keeps her busy. All good things have to come to an end though, and this safe zone is no exception. During their escape, Catra - the girl she'd had a budding crush on in high school- does something that Adora isn't sure she can forgive. Catra didn't have a choice, it was life or death. Adora would understand that eventually. Even if she didn't, Catra wasn't sure she cared. She hadn't care about much of anything in a long, long time.Separated from the rest of their escaped group, Catra and Adora have to find some way to get along long enough to reach the next safe zone before winter comes into full effect and they freeze to death. Winter is the least of their worries though, they have the infected to worry about.WONT BE COMPLETED SORRY :(
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 180
Kudos: 392





	1. Prologue: Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go again, this time set in a universe I originally designed for some OCs of mine. :) Hope you enjoy. Post-Apoc settings are one of my favourite settings. I'll link the playlist I'm using at the end of this chapter - just a heads up, its a work in progress and songs may get added or disappear throughout.

Adora sighed and leaned in closer to the paper on the desk in front of her. Frustration was rising quickly. Math had always been her least favourite subject. Sure, she could eventually puzzle it out herself. But numbers just made no sense; they swam around behind her eyes and made it hard to concentrate. Around her, all her classmates were working on the same final exam for their first semester in the exam hall. She’d spent so much time studying these last few weeks that she felt like her head might explode. But she was almost done, this was their last exam.  
  
Adora frowned as she scribbled down another equation and answer on the paper. It didn’t look right, but she couldn’t figure out where she might have gone wrong. She stared at it hopelessly for another few seconds before she gave up and moved on to the next question.  
  
This was her second year in high school, so the pain of exams was something she was unfortunately getting used to. Adora wished she didn’t have to struggle so much twice a year for tests that she felt did nothing to aid her education, but she couldn’t do much about it. Her grades were good anyway, the only subject she truly struggled with was math.  
  
Adora fought the urge to scream as she came upon another question that she wasn’t sure what to do with. Wearily she glanced around at the students around her. The hall seemed emptier than it should be. Usually the exam hall was packed full, but it seemed lately that lots of kids had been missing school for whatever reason. Most of the students that were here looked deep in thought, a few looked frustrated like Adora, and a couple seemed to be finished. Having turned their exam papers over on the desk and raising their hands so the teacher supervising them could come collect, and they could leave. Adora spotted a familiar figure with her hand up near the opposite wall of the exam room. 

Catra. Adora had never truly spoken to her, but she seemed to haunt the edges of Adora’s thoughts ever since freshmen orientation when they were forced to play one of those stupid icebreaker games together. The one where you make a list of things you notice about the other person and make guesses about what they’re into. All Adora had been able to come up with was that Catra was pretty -which she didn’t write down because, embarrassing-, had heterochromia, and maybe she enjoyed drawing because her fingers had been smeared with graphite.  
  
Catra had guessed that Adora played some kind of sport -correct, Adora played soccer during her summers and would later join the school team-, that she was into astronomy -only half right, she loved stars, her bag was covered in them, but knew very little about them-, and had called Adora a dork when she’d accidentally knocked over her own water bottle all over their paper with their observations on them. Which meant they spent the rest of the game time cleaning up spilled water and soggy papers.  
  
The bell rang, and they gathered up their things, and then never truly spoke again. Though Catra always waved at her when they passed in the hallways. And she always seemed to make it out to the soccer field outside their school to watch the practices even though Adora wasn’t sure who she was friends with on the team. Adora wanted to talk to her again, Catra’s smile gave her butterflies that she’d never experienced before. Her eyes were also like, insanely pretty. One an icy blue, the other a warm amber brown. She knew others teased Catra about them, heard the rumours and saw the mean scribblings on the bathroom stalls. But Adora liked them.  
  
Adora herself had tried to talk to Catra several times. Often making her way towards the other girl while she was sitting in the hallways during lunch, scribbling away in a sketchbook or working on homework. Nerves always stopped her at the last second though, and Adora would just pass her by.  
  
Adora sighed and looked back down at her mostly completed exam. She shouldn’t be thinking about Catra right now, she should be trying to figure out which equation to use for the final question. Then she could go home and rejoice in the small break she would get before the second semester started next week.  
  
She watched Catra leave the exam room out of the corner of her eye.  
  
_Focus, Adora._ _  
_  
She finished the exam fifteen minutes later, though she was not confident that she had aced it. She would be lucky if she barely passed, but no one could say that she hadn’t tried. While the teacher collected her papers, Adora felt the phone in her pocket buzz. As soon as the teacher turned his back, Adora gathered her stuff up, shoved it in her backpack, and darted out the door into the high school hallways.  
  
There were a few lingering students, but mostly the hallways seemed void of people. Also strange, because often students would gather after exams to hang out and celebrate their brief freedom. Always resulting in teachers coming out to shoo them away unsuccessfully. Adora didn’t think too much of it though. She pulled out her phone as she made her way to her locker to grab her coat before she left.  
  
**Mom:** are you almost home?  
  
**Adora:** omw out now  
  
**Adora:** why?  
  
**Mom:** your father got into an ‘altercation’ with the neighbor  
  
**Mom:** we’re going to the ER for some stitches  
  
**Adora:** omg is he okay?  
  
**Mom:** it’s minor  
  
**Mom:** won’t be home when you get there, leftovers in the fridge for you  
  
**Adora:** tell dad he’s an idiot  
  
**Adora:** love you both, see you soon  
  
Adora sighed and pocketed her phone again. Her dad often didn’t get along with their neighbours, but it had never resulted in anything physical before. Worry prickled at her stomach. If it was more serious, her mom probably would have just come and picked her up on the way. Now thoroughly distracted, Adora tugged her jacket out of her locker and shrugged it on. Fumbling with the zipper, worried about her dad.  
  
The walk home was quick, albeit cold. Winter was right on their front doorstep. No snow yet, but it was close. Adora could smell the sharp tang of frost in the air while she made her way down the street to her where her house was nestled at the end.  
  
In the distance Adora could hear sirens, lots of them. They were close enough to the city that sirens were not necessarily rare, but Adora wasn’t sure she had ever heard anything like this before. There must have been a big accident on the freeway, or something. Maybe a fire in one of the nearby apartment buildings? Adora was sure that if it was anything worth noting, it would be on the news tonight when her and her parents sat down to eat dinner and catch up. Adora fully intended to get the full story out of her parents about her dorky dad getting into a physical ‘altercation’ with their neighbours.  
  
A cold wind blasted Adora’s back and made her stumble a few steps into her driveway. Adora shivered and grumbled, wishing already for the return of summer and shorts weather. When she could spend her time outside running or meeting with team mates for practice every morning. That was months away, though. So she unlocked her front door, and stepped inside.  
  
The house was silent and empty, as her mom had told her it would be. Adora hung up her jacket and dropped her backpack by the stairs. She’d empty it out later, right now she just wanted some quiet time to unwind from her exam and the news about her dad.  
  
She collapsed onto the comfortable living room couch and flipped on the television for some background noise, then began idly scrolling through her social media feeds. There were a lot of articles on some kind of flu going around that was making people hallucinate and become violent. She’d been hearing a lot of that recently, more and more over the past week. She’d been so focused on studying for her exams though, that she hadn’t been paying much attention. Now she was too mentally exhausted to read any of the articles that were popping up on her feed. Adora wasn’t too worried, there was a new flu strain going around every winter. This one just seemed to have come a little earlier than normal. Adora made a mental note to go and get her flu shot soon. 

  
Totally without meaning to, Adora fell asleep on the couch with her phone on her chest.  
  
She didn’t remember her dream, only that she woke up hours later to see that the sun had almost completely set and her parents still didn't seem to be home. She groaned, a headache forming behind her eyes from her ill-planned nap. Glancing around to see what had woken her up and realizing that her phone had fallen onto the floor and was quietly buzzing. Rubbing her eyes with one hand, she reached down with the other to see who was calling. It was her mom.  
  
Adora picked up.  
  
“Hey, where are you guys? I thought you’d be back by now.” Adora mumbled sleepily, forcing herself to stand up. Maybe she should heat up some of those leftovers.  
  
“I’m sorry honey, your father seems to have a bit of an infection and the doctors are worried about his fever.” Her mom sounded stressed. In the background, Adora could hear hospital chatter over speakers, something about requesting security to another floor.  
  
“Already?” Adora asked, pausing in front of their refrigerator. “That was fast.”  
  
Adora had had infections before, she wasn’t exactly careful. The last one she had came from a slip and fall at the beach. She’d sliced her leg open on a rock hidden under the surface. She’d insisted she was fine, and life went on as normal for a couple days. The fever hadn’t started until at least three days in, when her mom dragged her to the ER despite Adora’s protests to get an abscess drained and get some pretty powerful antibiotics. Adora hadn’t really been forthcoming about how much her leg had been hurting her, but it definitely hadn’t been pleasant.  
  
“Yeah, I was surprised too. We were just about to leave, but he passed out in the parking lot.”  
  
“Is he okay?” Adora worried, pulling the tupperware out of the fridge and opening it up. Spaghetti from the previous night. Not her favourite, but she was too hungry to care.  
  
“The doctors say he should be fine but…” Her mom hesitated, and Adora knew she was biting her nails. “He seems to just be getting worse. He threw up just before I called you.”  
  
“Dad never throws up,” Adora frowned, sticking her dish in the microwave.  
  
“I know. I don’t think we’re going to be home for a while. After the doctor comes around again for his next check, I’ll see if I can sneak home and grab you.”  
  
Adora appreciated that, she didn’t like being home alone. She especially didn’t want to be home alone while one of her parents was stuck in the hospital.  
  
“Yeah, sounds good. Just let me know when you’re coming so I can be ready to go?”  
  
“I will.” Her mom still sounded worried.  
  
“Are you okay?” Adora prompted, leaning back against the counter while her food heated.  
  
“Yeah, no. I just. This hospital is so packed right now. There are a lot of sick people. That flu is serious business. I saw one guy come in all covered in blood not that long ago, some kind of attack. Overheard some nurses saying the two are related.”  
  
Adora frowned, finding herself biting her own nails with her nerves. “Do you think dad caught it?”  
  
“I don’t know. They’re running tests.” Her mom sighed. In the background Adora could hear the sounds of a squabble between patients breaking out.  
  
When the noise died down, her mom spoke again. “I’ll call you back when I’m leaving. Love you.”  
  
“Love you too. Tell dad I said hi.”  
  
“Will do.”  
  
The call ended, and Adora set her phone down on the counter. The microwave beeped, altering her that her food was done but Adora suddenly didn’t have an appetite anymore.  
  
Reluctantly, Adora shovelled the day old spaghetti into her mouth. She figured if she had to go spend the night in the hospital, she should at least eat first. Sure, they probably had food there. But who really wanted to eat hospital food? Not Adora. Not after the last time she was there.  
  
Adora finished her spaghetti and rinsed out the dish, setting it on the drying rack. Her phone lit up with a new message.  
  
Adora scrambled for it, hoping for it to be her mom. It wasn’t her mom, but she wasn’t disappointed to see the name in her notifications. Catra had only ever texted her once, to tell her who the number belonged to. It was one of those things, Adora just seemed to have everyone’s numbers. It was just something that happened once she joined the soccer team at school. She wasn’t sure how Catra had gotten her number, but she hadn’t been upset about it. Quite the opposite, actually. She’d been strangely elated. Adora had responded with ‘ Hey! :) ’ but had gotten no response after that, much to her disappointment.  
  
Adora had never deleted the conversation, even though it had been well over a year. It had stayed buried at the bottom of her list all this time.  
  
Adora opened her messages to read the text.  
  
**Catra:** have u seen the news?  
  
**Adora:** no, why?  
  
**Catra:** turn it on  
  
Adora frowned, but obeyed. Finding the remote and flipping it to their local news channel. Adora’s jaw dropped. It was a shot of their school. Out front there were parked fire trucks, police vehicles, ambulances, some trucks she didn’t fully recognize but she thought she saw CDC written on the side of one of them. People were running around in hazmat suits, entering and returning from the schools main doors. Police were positioned by their cars, guns pointed towards the doors.  
  
Adora looked back down at her phone.  
  
**Adora:** whoa

**Adora:** what happened?  
  
**Catra:** a couple students totally lost it, people died  
  
**Adora:** exam stress?  
  
Adora didn't know what else to blame it on. It couldn’t be that flu, could it? Flus didn’t make people murderers.  
  
**Catra:** dont think so  
  
**Catra:** … just wanted to see if you made it home okay  
  
Adora’s heart warmed inexplicably. They hadn’t spoken since orientation a year ago, but Catra seemed to still care.  
  
**Adora:** aw :) did you?

  
Adora waited for several minutes, but Catra didn’t respond. She sighed, but wasn’t surprised. Maybe she didn’t know Catra, like, at all. But she definitely seemed to be a bit of a loner. At least, Adora had never seen her hanging out with anybody at school. She always seemed to just be on the edge of whatever was happening. Always around, but never involved.  
  
Adora busied herself with stress cleaning, packing an overnight bag for the hospital, and binged several episodes of a show she liked on her parent's laptop. All the while, her phone stayed silent. Nothing from her parents at all.  
  
Eventually, she got fed up with waiting. It was almost midnight, and the growing abundance of sirens outside was beginning to make her nervous.  
  
Adora picked up her phone and called her mom’s number. She sat anxiously on her end, staring out into the street from their upstairs window, waiting for her to pick up. The phone rang several times, and Adora was afraid it was going to go to voicemail, but her mom picked up.  
  
“Adora,” her mom sounded breathless and frazzled.  
  
“Mom? I thought you’d be out by now. What’s going on?”  
  
“Dad got worse, sweetie. Much worse. He’s in the ICU. He had a seizure. It’s been crazy. Sorry I forgot to call you.”  
  
“A Seizure?” Adora brought her hand to her mouth. “What-”  
  
In the background she heard doctors and nurses yelling to each other, though she couldn’t make out what was being said she knew that they sounded frantic. Someone screamed in the background. A horrible, guttural scream that didn’t seem to end.  
  
“Mom?” Adora spoke louder into the phone to be heard over the noise.  
  
“It’s your dad-” Her mom got cut off by more screaming. The sound made Adora have to sit down as nausea rolled through her. That was her dad? What were the doctors doing to him to make him scream like that?  
  
“Is he okay?”  
  
Her mom didn’t answer, she was shouting something but Adora couldn’t make it out over all the screaming. Was there more than one person screaming now? Adora winced as the noise just kept seeming to get louder. She had to pull the speaker away from her ear.  
  
“Mom?” She shouted into the microphone, but she got no response.  
  
The shrieking on the other end crescendoed and Adora’s headache came back with a roaring vengeance. She heard her mom shouting more, followed by a clatter as, Adora assumed, the phone was dropped.  
  
Adora listened helplessly to the continued screams on the other end, anxiety eating at her and quickly morphing into panic. Her mom never picked the phone back up, instead Adora was met with a sudden crunching noise and then the line went dead.  
  
Adora felt hot tears escape her eyes and slide down her cheeks. “Mom..?” She muttered weakly into the phone. She had no idea what had just happened, but she had a sick feeling that it was something terrible.  
  
Adora stood in her panic and glanced around the room for her bag. She had to get to the hospital. She practically sprinted through the house while trying to order a taxi through an app on her phone. She stopped at the front door to yank her coat off of it’s hook, and had barely gotten it on when something slammed into her front door so hard that the picture frames on the walls shook.  
  
Adora jumped back from the door, stumbling into the front hall table, which sent a vase shattering across the tiled landing. Whatever had slammed against the door let out a horrible screeching noise that made Adora’s blood run cold. It sounded a lot like what she’d heard on the phone. The thing outside pounded against the frosted glass. With the streetlights outside illuminating its silhouette, Adora could vaguely make the shape out as human. Their hand slammed again against the glass and it began to crack. When the hand pulled away, there was a bloody print left behind. It glinted crimson in the dim yellow light from the street.  
  
Adora’s heart hammered in her chest. She didn’t know what was wrong with whoever was at the front door, but she knew in her gut that she definitely could not go through that door.  
  
The screaming continued. She had never heard anyone scream that way. Not in the movies, not in real life. Never. Adora desperately turned around and jerked open her back door, taking off through her back yard and vaulting over the low fence like it was nothing. She had no intention of going around the front of her house to find out what was currently bashing its way inside. She had to get to the hospital, had to know if her mom and dad were okay. Had to.  
  
So Adora ran.


	2. Prologue: Part 2

Catra finished her exam early, which wasn’t abnormal for her. Her grades were immaculate, despite the fact she had been hiding her recovery from everyone. By the time exams had rolled around, she’d only been three weeks post-op. Hunching over the desk to scribble out her answers had left her feeling stiff and sore in her chest and back. She couldn’t even truly stretch to rid herself of it, or she’d pull her stitches. She just had to pop some tylenol and hope for the best.    
  
Catra meandered down the hallway towards her locker, in no rush to go home. It wasn’t that her home life was bad, it was just that her parents were almost never home. She’d been sleeping alone in her parent’s massive house for the past week. Yeah, they’d left her to her own devices two weeks after she’d had a relatively major surgery. Parents of the year. They were considerate that way. They’d flocked off to some business convention somewhere in a big rush, even though Catra couldn’t even raise her arms above her head or lift anything heavier than her math textbook. They’d always been this way, at least as long as Catra could remember. Never home, leaving Catra with a nanny or a babysitter when she was little. She’d become pretty self-sustaining through the years, although begrudgingly.    
  
She got her own groceries, she got herself to school, and arranged all her doctor’s appointments. The only thing she needed help with was money, and her parents left her a generous allowance anyways. The best thing they’d done for her recently was find her a surgeon that would perform top surgery on a teenager, because Catra had been so miserable that they’d started getting worried about leaving her alone all the time. Miserable had been a vast understatement, actually. Catra had been damn near suicidal. Several therapist appointments later, and she had her surgery date booked. She supposed she should be immensely grateful that it had been as smooth as it had been to get it, but mostly she was bitter that her parents had left her alone again. At least the biggest grievance in her personal life was gone and she felt a lot better. So of course, her parents returned to their regularly scheduled absences. 

_Why even have a kid if you’re not going to be around to raise them?_   
  
She sighed and sorely adjusted the bag hanging over her shoulder. It was rubbing on one of her incisions. As she made it to her locker, she took a moment to glance around. The hallways were strangely empty, a fact that had not gone unnoticed before. She knew about the early seasonal flu, or at least that seems to be the common opinion. Catra wasn’t so sure.   
  
She pulled open her locker, wincing at the rusty squeak the hinges made. She carefully set her textbooks and her sketchbook inside and then pulled out her winter coat. She hesitated, staring at the puffy fabric in her hands. Did she really want to go home right this second? Maybe if she hung around a bit longer, she’d get a chance to try speaking to Adora again.   
  
Ever since that stupid ice breaker last year, Catra had been hyper aware of Adora’s presence in the school. Adora’s blue-grey eyes had caught her attention almost right away, and had followed her around since. The other girl had reached her hand out to shake with confidence that Catra had found a little intimidating. They’d played the dumb game, Adora had guessed that Catra liked to draw, had made the obvious observation about Catra’s eyes. But to her pleasant surprise, she didn’t poke fun at them. Adora did stare a little, but Catra didn’t feel like she meant it in a bad way. It had made her feel self conscious though, and she’d avoided looking at Adora through the rest of the game.   
  
There had been instances where people asked if she was possessed, had joked that she’d stolen someone else's eyes, had called her a freak. Once while Catra was out trying to buy some groceries for her dinner, the cashier she picked had asked Catra not to look at her because they freaked her out. Catra had gone home staring at the ground, feeling embarrassed and angry. Her appetite lost.   
  
Adora had been nothing but kind, even when she accidentally spilled water all over their game. While they had been cleaning it up, Adora’s hand had accidentally brushed Catra’s. She didn’t think Adora even noticed, but Catra’s finger tips had tingled for the rest of the day.   
  
Catra had wanted to reach out again, to maybe make friends with Adora. Ask to hang out, maybe. But she wasn’t good at making friends, and insecurity got the better of her. They’d never spoken again. Still, Catra found excuses to try and be around the other girl. Wait for an opening to talk, for the bravery to say hello. She’d even managed to get Adora’s phone number from one of the other soccer team members, using a group project as an excuse. It was a lie of course, her and Adora only shared one orientation together a year ago. Of course, she’d been too afraid to text Adora after that, worried she was being annoying. Adora hadn’t initiated anything first after that, Catra took that to mean she wasn’t all that interested in a friendship.  
  
Catra also liked to go out and watch the team practices, telling herself it was just because she needed to get outside more. She’d bring her sketchbook and sketch the players together, or at least that was what she started with. She’d always end up sketching Adora more often than anyone else on the team. Catra often found herself spending a lot of time on her eyes, her most vivid memory of Adora’s features. Of course, the whole person was pleasing to look at. Adora definitely had the whole set of good genetics. Tall, pretty, clear skin, athletic. Not that Catra had spent any time thinking about that, obviously. They were just observations she made while she drew.  
  
Catra shut her locker door and shrugged on her jacket. Maybe she’d go visit the library on the other side of campus and see if they had any new books in. She’d read for a little while to relax after her exam, and then she’d go home to an empty house where she’d wander the halls and find somewhere that didn’t feel quite so lonely. Maybe the front window cubby, where she could read or doodle, or play games on her phone while watching the street traffic below. She’d call her parents and see when they planned on coming home. If they even bothered to pick up.  
  


Would her parents even notice if Catra disappeared? Would anybody? 

  
Catra kicked a balled up piece of paper while she walked through the emptying hallways, making her way towards the courtyard. It was her favourite shortcut through the school. Lots of students just forgot that it even existed and bypassed it altogether, so Catra could sit out in the gardens and do whatever she wanted without too much worry of being harassed. In the winter though, it wasn’t all that enjoyable to sit out. Maybe it wasn’t officially winter yet, but it was sure getting close. The sky was often grey and overcast, and the trees had just finished dropping the last of their leaves. Winter winds often blew through and stirred them all up, tossing them into the sky dramatically.    
  
Catra shuddered as an icy wind came down on her from above, and she quickened her pace to the set of doors opposite to the ones she’d just come out of. She was only too eager to shut the door behind her and allow the school’s heat chase away what chill the outdoors had brought her.    
  
This half of the school seemed quieter than the one she’d just come from. It made sense, she supposed. All the exam halls were on the east side of campus. The only things over here were a bunch of older classrooms, the chemistry labs, the library, and an older gymnasium that didn’t get used as often as the new one on the east side. Still, something about this silence unnerved her and Catra found herself fidgeting the strap of her satchel. The lights were off, darkening the hallways and making them feel foreboding. The only light was the weak grey light coming in from the windows, casting soft stretched shadows over the worn linoleum flooring.    
  
Catra took a deep breath and started her way towards the library, where the lights would be on and the presence of the librarians would ease her discomfort. Catra walked quickly, eager to reach her destination. Behind her, she heard a sharp metallic clatter. She jumped and whirled around, only to see a janitor cursing and picking up the set of keys he had accidentally dropped. Christ, why was she so jumpy? She’d been in the darkened school hundreds of times by now. Why was this time any different? Catra stood quietly, watching the man wipe his brow of sweat. Catra thought that odd, because while it was warmer inside than out, it still wasn’t so warm to be working up a sweat. Catra was wearing her coat and she still wasn’t hot.    
  
The janitor’s hands shook as he clipped the keys back onto his belt, muttering under his breath but Catra was too far away to hear him. She noticed that his hand was wrapped in a bandage, blood seeping through the gauze.

_ He must have cut his hand while making a repair somewhere. _ Catra thought to herself, turning around again on her quest to get to the library.    
  
Thankfully, she made it to the library without too much of a hassle. Inside, the lights were on, illuminating the familiar rows of shelves lined with hundreds of different covers. She could see that much through the windows on the doors. Unfortunately, the doors were firmly locked. Catra shook the handle, but they didn’t budge. She frowned, that never happened. The library was supposed to be an open resource for the students here. The only time it wasn’t open was on holidays and the weekends. If they’d ever been locked on an otherwise normal day, it was because the librarian supervising had to run to the washroom. When that happened, they left a sign on the desk.    
  
Catra cupped her hands against the glass and peered through. No sign. Catra heaved a disappointed sigh. She’d been looking forward to procrastinating her trip home, but it looked like her plans would have to change. For whatever reason, today the library was off limits to students. Catra took one last hopeful glance into the library, then rolled her eyes in her defeat when she saw no one inside.    
  
Catra turned to look back down the dark hallways that led back to the courtyard doors. The skin on the back of her neck pricked. Something definitely didn’t feel right, but she didn’t have a lot of choice. The only doors leading out of the school that were unlocked today would be the main ones on the east side. She had to go back through the courtyard.    
  
_ Stop being such a chicken _ , Catra scolded herself.  _ It’s just an empty hallway _ .

Catra headed back the way she came.    
  
She couldn’t wait to get out of this town, head off to college where she could get a fresh start and maybe she wouldn’t be such a freak. Even if she still had no friends, as long as people left her alone she would be happy. An art college maybe, she could be an artist by trade and not just as a hobby and a way of coping with her loneliness. Story boarding seemed cool. Maybe an illustrator? They were two very different paths to take, but she had a few years to make her decision anyways, so she wasn’t too worried.    
  
Catra rounded the corner where she had seen the janitor before and paused. His cleaning cart was still parked in the middle of the hallway, made into a dark silhouette by the growing shadows as the light died outside. She hated that the sun set so early in the winter. It was depressing. And in this case; creepy.

Catra continued walking, towards the cart. She had to go past it to get to the doors. 

She couldn’t see the janitor anymore, but she heard something crashing around in the closet a little further down the hall. It had to be him, looking for something or whatever it is that janitors do with their closets. As she approached the closet, she passed the cart. She paused when a glint of red caught her eye. She squinted in the poor light and tried to get a closer look. Was that blood?    
  
It was. It dripped off of the cart’s handle and onto a small puddle on the floor, slow and sticky. God, how badly had he cut himself? Maybe he should be getting to an ER. Catra wrinkled her nose in distaste and moved on. It wasn’t her business, she just wanted to get out of here.    
  
Catra almost screamed as the janitor from earlier stumbled out of the storage closet. Her hand flying to her chest to keep her heart from leaping right out onto the floor.    
  
“Fuck- dude!” She cursed, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “Don’t do that!”    
  
The janitor grunted, and stumbled sideways. He took a gasping breath. He was partially hunched over, arms hanging limp. His shoulders twitched and jerked. Catra could hear the wet rattling noise from here. She frowned, and took a step towards him,    
  
“Are you okay?” Catra asked hesitantly. Inching her way closer when the man stumbled again. He propped a hand up against a row of lockers. Blood smeared under his fingers, the darkness of it contrasting the pale, outdated paint of the metal.    
  
Catra’s eyes flicked to the closet he had stumbled out of and she gasped. Blood was slowly pooled out from inside, a hand lay limp and bloody just in view. Whoever it was attached to was hidden from sight.    
  
The janitor twitched and threw his head back like he was trying to stretch, but instead of a groan that Catra had expected, a blood curdling scream erupted from his mouth. Catra scrambled back, slipping in the blood from the cart and falling backwards. Pain radiated up from her tailbone. The bone chilling sound of his unholy screaming echoed down the empty hallways and made Catra’s muscles go rigid with fear.    
  
“What the fuck?!” She cursed, attempting to scramble back to her feet but failing. Her shoulders were too stiff from her surgery, she couldn’t find the muscle strength to push herself back up.    
  
She shouldn’t have yelled, because it reminded the janitor that she was there. The screeching stopped immediately and the silence that followed it was almost worse than the noise. Catra’s blood ran cold.    
  
One slow second passed. Catra’s heart pounded painfully against her ribs.    
  
With one horrifyingly jerky movement, the janitor flew towards her in a full on sprint.    
  
Catra clambered backwards a few more feet, her back hitting the wall. Watched with wide eyes as the janitor got closer and closer, spittle flying from his open maw. His mouth was full of blood, it dripped all down his front and stained his teeth.    
  
Catra ducked to the side at the last second, instinct taking over. The man’s body slammed into the lockers so hard that he left an indent, but Catra didn’t stick around to observe the damage. Adrenaline pumping, she found the strength to push herself off and take off down the hallway. She was never much of an enthusiast for gym, but she was suddenly very thankful that she hadn’t just skipped all the classes. Catra reached the courtyard doors and yanked them open, tearing through the open space like her life depended on it.    
  
It sort of did, the janitor had recovered and was almost right on her again. Catra leapt over the center gardens and barely managed to stay on her feet when she landed. The tightness in her chest growing with every strained movement.    
  
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” She muttered to herself breathlessly, almost crashing into the east side doors herself. She pulled them open and slipped inside. Yanking the doors shut behind her just as the janitor crashed into the glass. It splintered, cracks spider webbing out from where his head had smacked against it. Catra stumbled backwards. He slammed into the glass again, furiously screaming. Blood smeared wherever he touched, some of it was his own from the new gash on his forehead. Catra caught a glimpse of his eyes, bloodshot and streaming bloody tears. What the fuck was he on?    
  
He stumbled back a few steps then threw himself against the door again. Why isn’t he just using the handle?    
  
_ Why am I just standing here? Run you moron!  _   
  
She couldn’t move though, entranced by the mindlessness of his actions. Behind her, other students were gathering to watch. Confused and shocked murmurs spreading through the gathering crowd.    
  
The janitor threw himself against the door again, the glass cracking some more. Lines of blood slid down like rain, staining the fissures red.    
  
“Someone call 911!” Catra heard someone yell, but it was muffled. All Catra could see was this man violently throwing his body up against the doors over and over again.    
  
_ The glass is breaking. Shit.  _   
  
“We can’t stay here,” Catra turned to speak to the group of students next to her. They didn’t listen, their phones out and recording the screaming man outside the doors.   
  
Catra opened her mouth to repeat herself, but she was cut off by the sound of shattering glass. One look told her all she needed to know. The janitor had broken through. He’d fallen onto the ground, cutting his hands multiple times on the glass as he pushed himself back to his feet. The wet gurgling noise in his chest grew louder as he righted himself. Blood fell in steady streams from the gashes on his hands. Could he not feel that?   
  
He launched himself into the crowd so fast that Catra barely had time to step out of his way. The coppery scent of blood was thick as he narrowly missed Catra and cannoned into the older boy standing just behind her. It happened in slow motion. The janitor grabbed the boy by the shoulders and together they crashed to the floor. The crowd around them scattered in different directions but Catra was stuck to the spot. She watched helplessly as the janitor tore into the boy’s throat with his  _ teeth. _ Blood sprayed from his throat like a fountain, pulsing in time with his racing heart. Catra felt some of it hit her face, hot and wet. Salty in her mouth. His eyes were alight with fear one second, and the next they became unfocused, the fear fading to nothing as his expression went slack. Catra knew he was dead, but she couldn’t believe it. She had a science class with this boy last year. He was always late.    
  
She stared, watching the janitor continue to tear into the now lifeless corpse. Sickening wet noises making Catra’s stomach turn over. She tasted bile.    
  
Someone yanked her away from behind, snapping her out of her stupor. She didn’t see who it was because the crowd had all begun a stampede for the door. As she was trying to get her bearings, she finally noticed that the janitor wasn’t the only crazed person in the room. More people had stumbled through the broken door and were chasing the crowd out into the hallway. Students, she thought, but Catra didn’t stay to find out.    
  
Catra was pushed and shoved by other panicked students and teachers as they tried to get away from whatever was happening. She was dimly aware of some of the crazed people tackling and killing more students like the boy from her science class, but panic drove her through the school and out the main doors where police cars and ambulances were beginning to pull up.    
  
Catra stumbled to a stop near the curb, next to one of the ambulances and threw up into the gutter. People were continuing to pour out of the school, but all she could think about were those boys eyes as he died. Catra heaved again, but nothing came up this time. She coughed and spluttered. The bitter taste of blood and bile mixed in her mouth.   
  
She thought maybe someone was talking to her, but her ears were ringing too loud to focus on the voice. Her chest throbbed, her head was spinning. Someone gently touched Catra’s shoulders and she flinched away, swinging out with her fist on instinct.    
  
“Whoa! Easy there!” The voice was clearer now, a paramedic. She stood in front of Catra with a look of concern. “I just want to check you out, okay? You’re covered in blood. Are you hurt?”    
  
Catra’s eyes flew around wildly, trying to spot the people who had attacked them. “He killed him,” She muttered, stumbling.    
  
“Who killed who?” The paramedic's voice was gentle, but her expression was grim. She knew more about this than she was letting on.    
  
Catra couldn’t find her voice again. She just stuttered and winced and stumbled until the paramedic guided her to the back of one of the ambulances and set her down on the rear bumper.    
  
“I’m just going to take a look at you, okay?”    
  
Catra nodded numbly, watching police officers enter the school with their guns drawn.    
  
Catra sat almost completely still while the paramedic slowly looked her over, wiping away blood from her hands and face. She wasn’t thrilled to be touched so much, but it was also grounding her to the moment so she tolerated it.   
  
“Did any of them bite or scratch you?”    
  
“What?” Catra asked, blinking. “No, I don’t think so.”   
  
The paramedic looked relieved, nodding.    
  
“What’s going on?” Catra pressed, frowning. She was beginning to feel more herself again, if she tried not to think about that boy's eyes. Anything except the light leaving them.   
  
“It’s just the flu that’s been going around. Makes people hallucinate. We’ve got it under control, don’t you worry.” Her voice became monotone, words said so often recently that they held no meaning.    
  
“People are dead.” Catra said flatly, pulling her arm out of the women's grip.    
  
The paramedic said nothing, and stood back up. “You’re clear, I’ll send an officer by here so they can take your statement. Then you should be able to go home.”    
  
Without waiting for Catra’s reply, she left. Catra didn’t wait either. She got up off the back of the rig and sneaked around groups of cops, reporters, and medical personnel until she could duck into the crowd surrounding the scene. She didn’t want to talk about what she had seen. She wanted to go home.    
  
Catra winced halfway through the crowd, the sharp  _ pop pop pop _ of gunshots inside the school silenced the previously ongoing rabble. Hushed murmurs broke back out again moments later. Catra slipped through the last lines of people and stepped out into the street. The blue and red flashing lights of the first response teams vehicles lit up everything around her.    
  
A thought crossed her mind and she was hit with unexpected worry. Had Adora been in that crowd inside the school? She began to pull out her phone to ask, but a distant scream made her pocket it again. She didn’t want to stay here.    
  
Catra glanced once more at the chaos unfolding outside her high school, then turned and fled down the street towards her home.   
  
She was safely inside the locked doors before she tugged out her phone again. Her thumb hovered over her mom’s number. She should call her mom. Make them come home. Catra didn’t want to be alone. They would come home for this, right?   
  
Her classmates dying eyes flashed inside her head again and Catra pressed the call button.    
  
She anxiously paced through the kitchen while she waited for her mom to pick up, but the phone just kept ringing and ringing. Eventually, Catra hung up again. Of course they didn’t pick up. They rarely did. Parents of the fucking year. 

Catra’s legs grew weak and she felt herself slowly sink to the ground. Her hands shook. Her fingers were still stained with drying blood, but she didn’t know where it had come from. She fidgeted with her phone. Was Adora okay? She didn’t really have a right to worry, she barely knew the girl. But worrying about Adora was better than thinking about what she had seen, so she opened the year old conversation and sent a text.    
  
**Catra:** have u seen the news?   
  
**Adora:** no, why?    
  
**Catra:** turn it on   
  
Catra waited anxiously for several minutes. She was still alive, that was good. That helped a little.    
  
**Adora:** whoa

**Adora:** what happened?    
  
**Catra:** a couple students totally lost it, people died   
  
**Adora:** exam stress?    
  
Catra snorted, Adora definitely hadn’t seen anything like what Catra had witnessed, then. She remembered the screeching noise that had come out of that janitor’s mouth, and shuddered. There would never be any forgetting it.   
  
**Catra:** dont think so    
  
**Catra:** … just wanted to see if you made it home okay   
  
**Adora:** aw :) did you?

  
Catra began typing a reply. Yes, she was home. But no, she was nowhere close to okay. They weren’t friends though, and she didn’t want to dump this on a stranger’s shoulders. Catra hadn’t even come to grips about what had just happened yet. What would Adora even do about it? Nothing, probably. No one had cared about Catra’s problems before, why would that change now?    
  
Catra sighed with exhaustion, and put her phone away again. Outside her windows, she heard more sirens race by. Catra let her head fall back against the cool wood of the kitchen cabinets and closed her eyes.    
  
The image of the bloody, crazed janitor tearing into her classmate kept replaying over and over and over in her head. She felt hot tears slip down her cheeks.    
  
Catra wanted her parents, but she knew they wouldn’t be coming.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaand now we get into the main story :)

* * *

* * *

**7 Years Later**

* * *

* * *

  
Adora gripped the edges of the cold, grimy sink. The chill of the porcelain under her scraped palms helped keep her present, but only barely. Her entire body was shaking as the adrenaline slowly left her. Warily, Adora glanced up into the mirror. As always, her eyes were tired. Her face was sporting a new set of scars right over her left jaw, the edges of the wound were bright and pink. Blood was still oozing out, dripping slowly into the sink and further staining the once white porcelain. The rest of Adora’s face was bloody too, but this wasn’t her blood. No, it was the blood of a Screamer that had gotten the jump on her just outside the gates of the safe zone. God, it had even stained the short hair of her undercut. She hated having to scrub blood out of her hair.    
  
The thing had leapt at her from a hiding spot behind a rusting dumpster and tackled Adora, sending them both flying down an incline where Adora had smashed her jaw against the remains of a curb. She’d seen stars, but had no chance to process if anything was broken because the infected woman had been on her again a second later. Beating Adora ruthlessly with her fists, teeth snapping inches from Adora’s throat.    
  
The fight had ended with Adora vigorously smashing a chunk of the curb she’d hit into the Screamers face until the body stopped twitching. Blood had gotten absolutely everywhere, but she’d dropped her knife somewhere at the top of the hill and guns were both rare and a huge risk. The noise almost always drew more of them in.    
  
Adora had stumbled back up the hill, her face throbbing along with several other parts of her body from the fall. She’d been stupid to let her guard down. So,  _ so _ stupid. Adora knew better than that, but her mind had wandered. Not even to anything worth being distracted by, just remembering life before the infected.    
  
It was no surprise to Adora that the infected had become widely known as Screamers, after the sound they made. A sound that lingered in Adora’s nightmares. The Screamers had brought down the world as Adora had known it so fast, it hadn’t even _ begun _ to feel real by the time everything had fallen apart.    
  
Adora let out a slow breath, attempting to steady herself. This safe zone, Thaymor, had running water. It was cold, the heating system almost never worked despite the constant repairs. Adora didn’t care too much after a while though, as long as she had warm clothes and bed to crawl into afterwards, she was fine. Running water was a rarity and a blessing these days. She would take what she could get.    
  
She turned on the tap and waited for the rusty water to run clear, then began the tedious work of attempting to clean off all the blood. Before her friends saw her and inevitably gave her another long speech on how Adora needed to be more careful. Adora  _ was  _ careful, she almost never lets her guard down outside the gates. Doing so could mean her death. Every once in a while though, she’d see something that reminded her of the Before. Today she’d seen an old, rotting soccer ball hidden under a pile of decaying garbage. Without meaning to, Adora had been drawn back in time to a simpler time, when the hardest part of her days were getting up for school or for soccer practices. Memories of laughing over sliced fruit, sitting in the cool shade of one of the trees lining the field. Then suddenly, she was flying down a hill, screaming in her ears, the crumbling pavement hitting her back with enough force to wind her.    
  
Adora’s hands gradually stopped shaking while she worked. It had been a close call, she could have been bitten or scratched. She had gotten lucky this time, but like everyone; her luck would run out if she wasn’t careful.    
  
She turned the tap off when she was done and looked back up into the mirror. The cuts on her jaw were still bleeding, dripping into the sink below. She pursed her lips and leaned closer to get a better look. Yeah, she probably had to go see the medic. She needed a couple stitches. Bow and Glimmer were going to have a field day when they saw, there was no hiding this.    
  
Almost on cue, one of her friends walked into the room behind her. Glimmer looked exhausted, shuffling into the bathroom.    
  
“Ugh, oh my god.” She grumbled, collapsing onto the closed toilet seat behind Adora. “I’m so sick of patrolling at dawn. Any other time would be sooo much better.”    
  
Adora smiled to herself, unable to help being amused. Glimmer had never liked the early morning jobs, but somehow that’s all she ever got assigned.    
  
“At least you have Bow to keep you company.” Adora pointed out, trying to hide her smirk when Glimmer blushed.    
  
“That’s true.” Glimmer agreed quietly, folding her arms over her chest.    
  
Adora finished up in the sink and turned around to face her friend.    
  
Adora had found Thaymor close to three years ago. She’d stumbled in the main gates bloody, injured, and starving. Chased by an impressively sized horde by anyone’s standards. Glimmer had been the one on duty in the medic’s tent that day and had been in charge of treating Adora’s broken ribs and nursing her back to health. Glimmer had casually asked Adora’s story while she cleaned and stitched a gash on Adora’s arm, and Adora had just let the floodgates down. She’d escaped another safe zone as it had collapsed. Someone had neglected to properly check the perimeter exits and the infected had gotten through. All it ever took was one or two, and then everything would fall apart. The whole thing had been a blood bath. 

Adora had been staying there almost since the initial outbreaks at the start. Trying to find her place while dealing with the grief of losing everything she’d ever known. Adora’s story was not an uncommon one. It was the new normal. But no one had ever stopped to ask her about it before, and before she knew it she was a teary puddle on Glimmer’s cot, being told that she was safe now and not alone.    
  
Bow had come by to visit Glimmer not long after Adora had started crying and heard the tail end of the story about Adora’s parents. He’d introduced himself and then sat down on the cot next to Adora and offered her some of the food he’d initially only brought for himself and Glimmer. 

They bonded over their collective sob stories, telling each other what they remembered of the Before and how they ended up in Thaymor. Adora had found comfort in it, hearing about how Glimmer had been planning to be a vet. How she and Bow had actually been childhood friends and had gone through the outbreak together. Glimmer had lost her mom early on, but Adora didn’t need to hear the details. She knew. Bow’s dads lived in another safe zone, helping it to become established and functional. Bow had opted to stay here with Glimmer and her dad.    
  
Bow had been attempting to wiggle out of his two dad’s plans of him becoming a historian, like they were before all this. He’d actually been really into archery as a hobby, and had dreams of going to the Olympics for it. Adora couldn’t help but think that it was a really useful skill to have nowadays. His weapon of choice was of course, bow and arrow. He was scarily good at it too. Adora had seen him make head shots from distances Adora couldn’t even dream of hitting.    
  
By the time Glimmer had finished repairing Adora’s injuries, all three of them had become all cried out, emotional lumps. They’ve been best friends ever since. Adora lived in fear of losing them one day, but she also could not imagine not having them in her life right now.    
  
Adora winced when she noticed Glimmer staring at her, her expression resembling that of a disappointed parent.    
  
“What happened to your face?”    
  
“What?” Adora tried to play dumb.    
  
“Adora.” Glimmer sighed, standing up and taking the two steps necessary to be standing in front of her. She stood on her toes to get a better look at the wounds. “What happened?”    
  
Adora reluctantly told her about the Screamer outside the gates.   
  
Glimmer sighed, exasperated and lightly smacked Adora on the side of her head. “What happened to being careful?”    
  
“I know, I know, it was an accident. And look, I’m fine!” Adora held out her arms to emphasize how fine she was. She winced as the movement tugged at the bruise that was slowly forming on her back.    
  
“Adora, I swear to god…” Glimmer pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. “You’re almost worse than Catra.”    
  
“I am  _ not  _ worse than Catra.” Adora grumbled, folding her arms back over her chest.    
  
“Adora, the only difference between you and Catra is that you hurt yourself by accident.” Glimmer began grumpily digging through her bag, pulling out the suture kit she kept with her. Adora guessed she wouldn’t have to go to the medical tent, after all.    
  
Adora snorted, annoyed that she’d been compared to the other more reckless, irritable, overall most unpleasant to be around runner in their zone.    
  
When Adora had arrived here, she’d been completely surprised to learn that Catra had also wound up here inside the walls of Thaymor. Adora had even been a little excited, it was like coming across something preserved from her life before everything fell apart. The excitement hadn’t lasted long though. Catra’s eyes had met her from across the room and it was very evident that Catra was not the same person she’d met back in freshmen orientation. Her eyes were still gorgeous, Adora thought, but they had a hard edge to them now. There was no friendliness, only ice. Adora had halted all plans to go over and say hello. Catra had watched her from her position at the gate, waiting for them to open it so she could go out and do her run for supplies. She made no effort to come and say hello herself.    
  
Through the past few years, Adora and Catra had barely spoken. When they did speak, it was about what areas had been swept through already, where Screamers had been spotted. All business. Catra would speak in clipped, blunt words while Adora tried to be more outgoing and friendly. She wasn’t sure what had changed for Catra, but Adora knew enough about the world they lived in that she knew it changed people. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.    
  
After seeing some of the fights Catra got into, she assumed that this world had turned Catra towards the worse end of things. The result was just that her and Catra didn’t usually get along. It had only gotten worse when Adora had fully recovered from her arrival and applied to be a runner. Quickly proving herself to be excellent at the task. Adora’s years on sports teams had paid off for her.    
  
From Adora’s understanding, Catra had been the top dog out of the team of runners that the zone had going before Adora joined up. Not that it was a competition, but there was a great sense of satisfaction at being the best. Adora still didn’t really see it as a competition, but the longer she had the job the more she thought that Catra did. Or at least, that’s how it seemed. In Adora’s opinion though, they were evenly matched for skill. Where Catra had speed and agility, Adora made up for with strength and stamina.    
  
Adora winced as Glimmer tugged Adora out of the bathroom and into their shared room. She let herself be dragged and all but tossed by the shorter girl onto one of the bunks. Glimmer bustling around, finding a chair and a clean towel to do her work. Adora watched patiently. There was no getting around this, Glimmer would tackle Adora to the ground if she needed. Adora knew from experience.    
  
As Glimmer settled in infront of Adora, beckoning Adora to lean forward so she could reach better, Glimmer asked about how the rest of the run had gone.    
  
Adora winced as Glimmer poked at the wound on her face, “It was pretty standard. I got a few miles out this time. I think there’s a horde headed this way, though. So I don’t think anyone should be sent out alone, or at all, until it passes.”    
  
Glimmer hummed, nodding. She pulled a piece of gravel out of the wound. “You reported that, right?”    
  
Adora scoffed, offended. “Yeah, of course.” 

“Bow kissed me.” Glimmer blurted, and Adora blinked with surprise. 

“Really? About time.” Adora grinned and Glimmer frowned at her. 

“Straight face or I can't sew this up.” 

“You tell me something like that and expect me to keep a straight face? Come on, Glimmer…”Adora almost whined. 

“Adora, unless you want an ugly scar right on your face, you’ll listen to what I’m telling you.” Glimmer waved the needle in Adora’s face as she emphasized her point. 

Adora harrumphed but she fought to keep her face straight. Glimmer went back to work. 

“Anyways,” Glimmer continued, shooting Adora a look. “We were just nearing the end of our patrol route. You know, at the top of that collapsed supermarket?” Adora nodded as slightly as she could to indicate her understanding. “And there were no clouds for once so we could see the sunrise. One thing led to another and he… just kissed me.” 

It took so much self control to keep her face straight, Adora thought she may explode with the effort. 

“I don’t know what he was thinking! We’ve been friends forever. Should we really ruin that?” 

Glimmer pulled her hands back to allow Adora a response. 

“You guys have been gunning for each other for months now, Glimmer. Just go for it.” 

“But what if it doesn’t work out?” Glimmer fretted with the towel sitting in her lap, now stained with Adora’s blood. 

“I think you guys were made for each other. Just go for it. Life’s too short to miss out on this. It’s too rare.”    
  


Glimmer pursed her lips but said nothing more about it. Adora rolled her eyes at her friend. She trusted that they could figure it out. They always did.   
  


Adora watched Glimmer’s expression as she finished up with her stitches. Dabbing away the last of the blood and snipping the threat, she sat back to admire her work.

“Well, you’re still going to have some scars. But at least they won’t be gigantic. You can avoid looking like a supervillain for another day.” 

Adora laughed and nodded. “Damn, I was really looking forward to that. Ah well, thanks Glimmer.” 

Glimmer looked like she was going to say something else, her troubled expression returning, but there was a knock at the door. Adora sat up straight and watched as Bow stepped into the room. Bow, her other best friend and also one of her bunk mates. 

“Hey, Adora. Juliet is looking for you in the- oh. Hey Glimmer.” He cleared his throat, a blush darkening his skin. 

“Hey, Bow.” Glimmer responded politely. 

Adora could have cut the tension with a knife. She cleared her throat. “Where did Juliet need me, Bow?” 

“What?” He asked, tearing his eyes away from Glimmer. “Right, uh. The pit. Just a heads up, Catra is down there.” 

Adora groaned, but nodded. “Any idea what she wants?” 

Bow shrugged, glancing at Glimmer again. “Dunno, but it seemed kind of important. I would hurry.” 

Adora regretfully got up off of the comfortable mattress and grabbed her bag off the chair where she’d dumped it, then reattached her hunting knife to her belt. If survival had taught her anything, it was that she always had to be carrying a weapon. She hated it, but she had gotten used to it. 

She glanced once more at her friends, they were staring at each other and blushing. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Adora had no advice to give them, she had absolutely zero experience when it came to a love life. It was very likely that Adora was going to die alone. They would have to figure it out on their own. 

Adora shut the door behind her and headed down the weaving maze of hallways that were the apartments. Over a hundred people had made their homes here. Everyone had a role to play. The only people allowed to take it easy were young children and the elderly. Though, there really weren’t much of either here. Adora allowed her mind to wander while she trekked the familiar path down to the pit. 

The pit was the central hub of the safe zone. Where patrols gathered and organized themselves before heading out, where the runners got their lists of items in demand and reported back on what they’d found. Traders often set up temporary camps down there with goods they’d dug up while travelling from zone to zone. In the warmer months, the pit became host to a temporary farmers market type setup. Members of the community could come down and trade for fresh fruits and vegetables that the farmers grew out in the back end of Thaymor. 

Adora usually liked spending time down here, talking and catching up with all the familiar faces that had become scarcer when the colder months moved in. Every year the winters seemed to be getting colder and longer. At first, Adora thought that it had just been her imagination. She’d found out later that Micah, Glimmer’s dad and organizer of the patrols, had noticed the same thing. All that meant for them was that survival was going to get a lot harder if this trend continued. 

As if to back up her point, an icy blast of winter wind swooped down from above and made Adora shudder. She pulled her sweater closer against her skin. Adora was beginning to sorely regret not bringing her coat along with her. 

She spotted Juliet over by the main gate, her normally pristine hair was tied up in a messy heap on the top of her head. She was deep in conversation with… Catra. It did not seem like a pleasant conversation. 

Adora steeled herself for the glares she was about to receive, and stepped up to join them. Juliet had her clipboard with her, as she usually did. She was in charge of all the runners. Adora thought that couldn’t have been an easy job, because Catra almost always had an issue with the schedules. 

“I just don’t see why you’re making me do this.” Catra argued, and Juliet took a deep breath through her nose. Adora could already see that she’d repeated herself beyond what her patience could handle. 

“Because of the horde, I don’t want anyone going out alone for the time being.”

“Yeah, whatever. But  _ Adora _ ?” Catra spat her name with heavy disdain and Adora frowned. 

“What about me?” 

They both turned to look at her as though only just noticing Adora had joined them. Catra’s expression went from annoyed, to even more annoyed. Adora couldn’t say she’d expected anything else. She scowled at Adora, and turned away. Busying herself with tying back her hair, which had come loose during her heated argument with Juliet. Despite Catra’s blatant bitterness towards anything that moved, Adora still thought she was pretty. Long hair suited her. 

“I was just trying to explain to Catra that with the horde you reported-“ Catra scoffed under her breath, but said nothing. Juliet glared at her, but continued. “That none of you will be going out alone until it’s well passed.” 

“Oh, okay.” Adora nodded. That didn’t seem too bad. It’s what she expected. 

“Everyone else has been paired up and,” Juliet looked at Adora apologetically. “You guys are the only two left.” 

Adora blinked, the pieces coming together. “Oh.” She repeated, this time disappointed. 

The silence between them sat heavy. 

“Okay, well.” Juliet grumbled under her breath, flipping through the pages on her clipboard. “If I could ask one favour before you two go-“ 

“You can’t.” Catra snipped. 

Juliet glared at her. Adora knew this wasn’t a request, it was an order. Catra didn’t speak out again. 

“Could you two please go into the garages below and see what’s holding Glen up? He came back a few hours ago with some scavenged gasoline for the generators, but hasn't reported back on how much he got. We need to know for inventory.”

Catra heaved a heavy sigh, but Adora nodded. “Yeah, no problem.” She smiled. 

Juliet gave her a smile that said  _ ‘thank you for making this easier for me.’ _

Adora understood the sentiment. Catra was frustrating to work with. The only reason she hadn’t been booted from the safe zone was because they genuinely needed her contributions. 

Juliet turned and walked away to go finish her afternoon rounds and checks. 

Catra said nothing, but followed Adora when she started making her way to the garage. Adora couldn’t help but feel like this was only a one person job, but hordes were taken very seriously around here. Regardless of if they were inside the walls or not, no one was allowed to be alone near the walls in case of a breach. 

She didn’t try to make conversation while they walked the crumbling streets. Trying to talk to Catra often ended in hurt feelings. Or a black eye, if you were dumb enough to try and touch her. 

Adora had witnessed it happen twice. The most recent time had been while Catra was dropping off her found items at the pit. She’d been particularly grumpy that day, covered in blood and sporting a nasty looking gash on her shoulder. One of the medics had touched her gently on the arm, asking to take a look at it. In no time flat, that medic had been shoved up against a concrete pillar so hard that the sound made everyone around them stop and stare. 

“ _ Don’t. Touch me _ .” Catra had hissed through her teeth, letting go of the medics collar and stalking away into the apartments to nurse her own wounds, Adora had assumed. 

You simply just didn’t try to touch her. It had become a widely known and unspoken rule throughout Thaymor. What had happened to Catra to make her that way, Adora did not know. 

Adora stepped up to the rusted steel door that led into the underground parking lot they called the garage. She pulled it open and stared into the darkness. There weren’t any lights until the bottom of the staircase, but it still made Adora shudder to think about. 

Catra marched past her without a nod or a thank you, and disappeared into the dark without any hesitation. Adora shook her head, stepping in after her. The door slammed behind her back, and she was cast into complete darkness. 

She started down the steps. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you've seen enough horror things, then this chapter was pretty predictable but i hope you enjoy it non-the-less :)

Adora hated the dark. She wasn’t afraid of it, but maybe she should be. Being afraid of the dark seemed more like wisdom these days than it did cowardice. It could hide a lot of dangers. Without realizing it, someone could walk right off the edge of a collapsed apartment floor. Trip over debris and wind up with a rebar through a limb. Infected could be hiding in its reaches, and they often were.   
  
Adora took a silent breath to steady herself as they descended the multiple levels into the lowest garage. She could hear Catra’s light footsteps just a few steps ahead, but couldn’t see her. Catra moved so silently over the concrete steps that if Adora hadn’t already known she was there, she might have thought the soft padding noises were dust crumbling off of the slowly collapsing parking garage. She was actually impressed that Catra could be so quiet.   
  
Together they made it down to the bottom level, where several kerosene lamps gave out just enough flickering light to see by. Adora anxiously skipped down the last steps, wanting to get out of the dark. Catra had stopped at the bottom, Adora assumed she was waiting for Adora to finish catching up but just as Adora was about to pass her to go around the corner, Catra’s hand caught her elbow. Pulling her back against the wall.   
  
In the dim light, Adora saw Catra move a finger to her lips. Telling Adora to be quiet. At first, Adora was lost, wondering what she was doing. Catra’s stare was intense, flashing even in the dark. She cocked her head, listening closely.   
  
Adora frowned but did the same. It took a moment, but she heard what Catra had. Echoing faintly between the concrete pillars, Adora heard a muted grunting. The shuffling sound of uneven footsteps being jerked over the ground. If she listened closer, she could hear the rattling breathing sounds of a Screamer hidden somewhere on their level.   
  
She looked back to Catra, who nodded at Adora. Wordlessly they stepped around the corner as silently as they could. Catra pulled the knife off of her belt and crouched, moving quickly and silently towards the sounds. Adora was right on her heels, scanning the dark corners of the garage for movement.   
  
_We make an okay team when Catra’s not being… well, Catra_. Adora thought to herself. Not needing words to communicate intentions in these sorts of situations was uncommon, and an asset.  
  
The garage was mostly empty, save for a few parked vehicles that still worked. In the furthest corner sat a beat up pickup truck, the back of it loaded up with oil drums Adora assumed were full of gasoline. She couldn’t see Glen, the man they’d come down here to find. Catra halted her advance towards the truck, holding up her hand for Adora to stop.   
  
Catra grew tense, staring into the dark. Weak lamp light reflected off her face, making her expression seem more severe than usual. Adora shuddered, Catra could be terrifying when she wanted to be. Which coincidentally, was almost all the time.   
  
Adora saw movement behind the truck. Catra saw it too.  
  
“Wait here,” Catra turned to mouth the words to Adora, and she nodded. Kneeling on the damp cement and watching as Catra started moving forward again. Adora wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but thought that maybe Catra was going to flush the Screamer out. Adora was only half right. Catra certainly flushed the Screamer out, but neither of them thought there were going to be two. Adora saw the second too late to warn her partner.  
  
Adora watched in horror as Catra was jumped from behind, the Screamer screeching and tackling Catra into the pavement. Adora launched herself forward, taking the distance in just a few quick strides and tackling the infected off her assigned partner.   
  
Adora barely had time to register Catra clambering back to her feet and begin grappling with the second before Adora was consumed in her own fight. The infected thrashed violently in her grip. Limbs flying. Its elbow caught Adora right on her freshly stitched jaw, and she cried out in pain. Her grip loosening just enough for the infected to turn on her.   
  
Adora thrust her forearm out against its throat to keep it away from her face. She wrestled with it, rolling a few feet towards the truck. She winced when their ongoing struggle knocked one of the unloaded barrels over, the metallic crash echoing loudly. She grunted with effort, blinking as bloody spit flew out of its mouth and landed on her face. Adora recognized the face above her, it was Glen. His eyes rolled wildly in his head, bloodshot and oozing tears and blood. He and his partner must have gotten bitten and come down here to hide, or whatever bullshit excuse they had. Stupid. _Stupid._ **_Stupid._**  
  
A few feet away, she heard the explosive sound of a gunshot. Then a second, and Adora felt the infected on top of her go limp. Glen collapsed on top of her and she felt hot, sticky blood seeping into her clothes.   
  
“Ugh,” Adora grunted, shoving the body off of her and sitting up. “You okay?”   
  
Catra stood a few feet away, a pistol in hand. She was clutching her side with her free hand, taking deep breaths and looking around at the damage. A few strands of her ponytail had come loose and hung haphazardly in her face. They moved with her breath. A thin trail of blood was coming out of the corner of her mouth, but she seemed to be okay otherwise.  
  
“Fine.” She gasped, dropping the gun and placing her hands on her knees, she coughed. “You?”   
  
Adora took a moment to check herself over. Other than a fresh stream of blood coming from the cuts on her face, she felt fine. No bites.   
  
“Yeah.” Adora propped her elbows on her knees and let her head hang between her legs. She hadn’t known Glen or his partner well, but it was still upsetting to learn that they were dead. Adora didn’t even know how to begin explaining to their respective families what had happened. All she knew was that they’d hid their bites and it had almost cost Adora and Catra their lives. Maybe more, if they hadn’t put them out of their misery.   
  
Catra raised her head up again, growing still and tense. She sniffed the air. “Do you smell that?”   
  
Adora looked up and sniffed. She was met with a sharp, pungent smell. “Gasoline. I think I knocked over- yeah.”   
  
Adora’s suspicions were right, behind her the barrel she’d knocked over was slowly leaking its contents over the ground. Reflecting the cracked roof of the parking garage and the dim flickering light on its shimmering surface.  
  
Catra was suddenly running again, towards Adora. She grabbed Adora by the shoulders and hauled her to her feet roughly, Catra’s fingers digging into the skin of Adora’s upper arm painfully. Catra shoved Adora back towards the staircase they’d come down with an urgency that Adora wasn’t expecting.   
  
“Move!” She shouted, tearing ahead of Adora, the sound of her footfalls echoing through the garage loudly.   
  
It only took a moment for Adora to gather why Catra was suddenly so panicked. The parking garage was full of kerosene lamps, lit with flame. The fumes from the gasoline. They’d ignite any second and blow them to smithereens.   
  
Adora raced after Catra as fast as her legs could carry her. They barely made it inside the doorway when the explosions knocked them back off their feet. Adora was thrown forward into Catra’s back and they crashed into the hard edges of the steps. The whole building shook and the sound of part of the parking levels coming down filled the silence with a deafening roar after the blast. Adora’s ears were ringing and her lungs burned as concrete dust filled the air. Smoke came billowing out from the level they had just been on.   
  
Catra shoved Adora off of her roughly and sat up coughing, dirt and debris staining her face and clothes. Catra brought a palm to her forehead and groaned. At least, Adora thought she was groaning. She couldn’t hear anything over the ringing. The building rumbled again as more of the structure gave way.   
  
Adora coughed and struggled to her feet. The only light was coming from the fires in the garage. Flickers of red and orange through the rubble on the other side of the doorway. Not enough to see by.   
  
“Nice going.” Catra grumbled, getting to her feet and bracing herself against the wall. Adora could see that she was favouring her right leg. She must have injured it in their fall.   
  
“Are you trying to blame this on me?” Adora sighed, casting a weary glare at her companion.   
  
Catra brushed bits of stone off of her shoulders. “Yep.”   
  
“This is not my fault.” Adora felt the heat of anger rising in her stomach, “If those two hadn’t hidden their- Wait.” Adora fell silent.   
  
Catra glared at her through the dim, but said nothing. Through the sounds of dust falling and rubble settling, she could hear… oh. _Oh no_.   
  
“The horde.” Adora almost whispered, staring in horror into the smoke. The explosion had blasted a hole in their outer wall and the noise had drawn them in.   
  
“What?” Catra asked, rubbing at her ears. Adora couldn’t blame her, her own ears were still ringing too. But this wasn’t the time for patience.   
  
“The horde!” Adora almost shouted, “We have to move!”   
  
Adora could see the gears clicking as Catra came to the same realization that Adora had.   
  
“Oh, shit.”   
  
Adora started up the stairs with Catra close behind. Behind them, a growing cacophony of screams and growls echoed out of the garage and followed them up the levels until Adora and Catra burst out the rusting metal door they had entered through.  
  
Adora stumbled out into the pit gasping and coughing, relieved to be breathing fresh air at last. Catra came to a stuttering halt next to her and clutched her side, looking pained and winded.   
  
Bow and Glimmer were standing just on the other side of the pit and saw the pair of them coughing, and covered in grit and soot. Blood dripped off Adora’s chin in an almost steady stream and into the dirt, mixing with the dust and turning it to crimson mud.   
  
Around them, people were bustling around and shouting orders. Adora guessed that had heard, or at the very least, felt the explosion below.   
  
“Adora!” Bow called, jogging over. Glimmer wasn’t far behind. At their backs, Micah, who looked like he had been in the middle of grilling Glimmer for information on the chaos erupting around them. 

Micah had taken responsibility for Adora when she joined Thaymor’s ranks. He wasn’t Adora’s dad, but he had become an almost father figure. He had the same dorky energy that her father did, and that was enough to warm Adora’s heart to him.    
  
Micah looked at the both of them and then eyed the garage door. Now, even through the metal, the growing sound of the horde making its way up the path Adora and Catra had taken was growing louder and louder.    
  
“What happened?” Glimmer demanded, looking Adora up and down. Her expression worried. Glimmer lifted Adora’s chin to get a better look at her ruined sutures.    
  
“Princess here, knocked over a canister of gasoline in a room full of open flame.” Catra grumbled, having finally caught her breath. Catra didn’t seem to be sensing the urgency of the situation anymore.    
  
Adora glared at her, “It was an accident! I was literally being attacked!” Adora had to swallow a growl of frustration. “Look, we don’t have a lot of time, the explosion blasted a hole in the wall and the garage is flooded with the infected.”    
  
Almost on cue, there was an eruption of banging against the metal door as many bodies began to slam into it. Adora watched as rust fell away from the strained hinges.    
  
“Fuck, Adora.” Glimmer muttered, running a hand through her hair. She glanced helplessly at her dad.    
  
“We have to get everybody out.” He asserted, pointing towards the apartments. “Get them to the back gates, get everyone you can through those doors and lock them.”    
  
Adora knew what gates he meant. She felt Bow and Glimmer stand taller with resolve, but Catra seemed to shy away from the idea.    
  
She opened her mouth, probably to point out a flaw in the plan, but just as she did the horde ripped through the door with a resounding crash. The sound of screams and yowls filled the streets around them, deafening any voices that may have been speaking. The five of them were already running, shouting and waving other survivors towards the apartments. Luckily, most people already seemed to know the emergency plans set in place in case of a breach. No one is ever prepared in full for a horde though. 

All around Adora is chaos. Human screams of terror and pain mixing with the guttural, predatory screams of the infected. Adora made the mistake of looking over her shoulder as they ran, and saw people that she had come to know and even like getting tackled from behind and torn apart. Adora almost stopped to try and help, even though there was nothing she could do. She felt someone yanking her arm and was surprised to see Catra, her expression grim. 

“Keep moving!” She commanded.    
  


“But they need help, I-“ Adora slowed further, and Catra yanked harder. 

“Adora! They’re dead! Let’s go!” Catra pulled Adora forward with such force, she stumbled. 

Up ahead, she saw Bow and Glimmer. Frantically waving people through the corridors that ran under the apartments, towards the set of open metal doors. The crowd of panicked and fleeing survivors funnelled towards it. Glimmer and Bow disappeared among the masses.

Panic bloomed in Adora’s chest, but she knew up ahead were all survivors. There were no Screamers up that far. No, they were all just behind Adora. Tearing apart everyone they got their hands on. 

An ear splitting screech made her attention snap just to her left, where Micah was half dragging, half carrying a woman with a bleeding leg. Trying desperately to get away from an infected man who had set his sights on them. Was she bitten, or was it just an injury received in the chaos? Adora didn’t care. She split away from Catra and ran towards Micah to help.

Adora skidded to a halt by their side and pulled the woman’s other arm over her shoulder to help bare the weight. Micah glanced at Adora and she saw the gratefulness in his aging expression. Adora just nodded, and together they carried the woman as fast as they could. 

Catra had run ahead, clearly giving up on getting Adora to listen to her. She stood by the doors, alone. One door had been shut, and she stood propping the other open and waving her hand frantically for Adora and Micah to hurry. It seemed everyone else had made it though.

Behind them, the infected screeched. Gaining on the stragglers. The stragglers being Adora and Micah, and the moaning woman they supported between them. 

Adora felt a body crash into her back and she was sent sprawling against the pavement. She gasped as a fist came down on the back of her neck, slamming her face against the ground. She saw stars. The screaming and grunting in her ears made her head spin faster. Adora struggled to roll over, but was pinned. She felt a fevered breath on the back of her neck. Smelling sickly sweet with rot and blood. 

_ This is it, _ she thought.  _ My luck has finally run out. _

She hoped it would be quick. That the infected killed her before she could turn into one of those things. 

Adora closed her eyes as hard as she could, preparing herself for the end. But it didn’t come. 

Just as Adora felt teeth pressing her skin, but not piercing it, the weight was thrown off of her. 

Adora rolled over in time to see Micah, impressively hurling the Screamer into the wall. 

“Go!” He shouted, picking the woman they’d dropped back up. Adora stepped towards him to help, but he screamed again. “Run, Adora! GO!” 

Adora hesitated, but ran. Micah’s footsteps falling behind her, further and further away. She should have stopped, she should be helping. 

She made it past Catra and stopped so hard and fast that the motion made her knees ache. She turned so fast she almost fell over. Staring wide eyed at Micah and the woman, who looked like she was now unconscious. 

The infected were right on their tail. They weren’t going to make it. 

“Micah, hurry!” Adora shouted encouragement, waving him frantically towards her. 

They had to make it. Glimmer needed her dad. 

The infected were right behind him, gaining more ground every second.

Screams echoed down the halls and resonated in Adora’s chest, rang in her ears. 

Micah’s eyes met Adora’s. 

He had to make it. 

Micah’s expression changed, and he slowed down. 

Adora screamed at him to run faster, screamed until her throat felt raw. 

Micah’s eyes were sad, but resolute. A bloody hand grabbed his shoulder from behind and pulled him backwards.

Adora tried to run back out, but someone was holding her, preventing her from moving more than a few steps. Distantly, Adora heard Glimmer crying out as well. 

The world around Adora was a muffled roar, time seemed to be slowing down. 

Adora watched in horrible slow motion as Catra slammed the door.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's a holiday and I had this chapter finished last night so as a treat, you can have a double post vuv

Catra hurried to slip the wooden plank in between the handles of the door just as the masses of infected began slamming into it. Catra stumbled backwards as the doors rattled, but seemed to be holding for now. Though, she knew they wouldn’t be for long. Not with that many piled up outside. Behind her, a devastated wailing grew to fill the shocked silence.    
  
Catra took a shaky breath, trying to shove back the wave of emotions that had begun to build the second Catra realized that there was no way Micah was going to make it through. She closed her eyes, not wanting to face whoever it was that sounded so devastated.    
  
She hadn’t wanted to shut the door, she wanted to keep it open and let Micah through. If she had though, the horde would have been through the doors and any chance of escape they had would be destroyed. She swallowed, her throat growing tight with emotion. Catra didn’t want anyone else to see. Micah had never been anything but kind to her, even though Catra knew she could be anything but.    
  
Years ago, when Catra had just come to Thaymor, Micah had been the one to greet her at the gates. Catra had been battered, bruised, and wary of everyone around her. They kept touching her and checking her injuries, the noise and attention had quickly overwhelmed her and before she knew it, she had a knife to some dudes throat telling him to back the fuck off.    
  
Micah had been the first to realize that Catra wasn’t really a threat, but the one who felt threatened. He’d pushed his way through the crowd and made everyone give her room. Catra had slowly lowered her knife, but kept it gripped in her palm. Back then, Micah’s hair had lacked all the grey.    
  
It wasn’t widely broadcasted through the safe zone, but every night since then Micah had stopped by Catra’s room with food to make sure she was doing okay. It wasn’t a secret that Catra kept to herself and had no one she could call a friend. When she wasn’t outside the walls performing runs, or making repairs, or getting into fights; she liked to hide in her bunk and draw in sketchbooks she’d found with pens and pencils she’d collected over time. Her bunk was cut off from the rest of the room, an old blanket acting as a divider. She wouldn’t even speak with her bunk mates.    
  
Micah would come in, knock softly on the door in a pattern meant just for her. So that she knew who was outside, and would actually answer. Micah would smile kindly, ask about Catra’s day, and leave the food on the end of her bed. Catra would indulge him, though she rarely ever told the entire truth. It became a routine. Micah was the only person who Catra didn’t feel immediate annoyance just by being around. If she were feeling brave, she may even say that she’d come to love their daily evening ritual. Catra was hesitant to say she loved anything she could lose.   
  
Now he was dead, and it was Catra’s doing.    
  
Catra forced herself to take a few more deep breaths, opening her eyes and blinking away the tears. The wailing behind her had quieted into moaning sobs. She turned around.    
  
Adora was standing over Bow and Glimmer. Her expression was empty, hollow. The hollow that comes with overwhelming grief. She had her hand resting gently on Bow’s back, who was on his knees holding Glimmer. Glimmer. Micah’s only daughter, his only surviving family. She clung to Bow desperately, sobbing into his chest. Bow had his head resting on the back of Glimmer’s. He was murmuring softly to her, but his eyes were red with tears.    
  
Catra looked back to Adora, who was shaking. Staring at the doors still, like it would change what had just happened. What Catra had just done.    
  
“We have to go.” Catra almost cursed at herself, her voice was shaking.    
  
Adora’s expression changed so fast that Catra almost got whiplash. Anger and hurt lit up her grey eyes with a fire Catra had never seen the other girl wear before.    
  
“How could you do that?” She almost growled, and Catra was taken aback.    
  
“We don’t have time to argue-” Catra started again, irritation igniting in her stomach.    
  
As if to prove her point, the doors groaned with the effort of holding back the infected.    
  
Adora’s jaw tightened, staring at Catra with disdain. But she said nothing, and pulled her friends to their feet. Everyone else had already fled, though Catra wasn’t entirely sure when they’d all been left behind.    
  
The doors groaned again, and one of the hinges popped off the wall. The screaming outside the doors got louder, hands grasping through the small gap opening near the top of the doors.    
  
The group of them had barely made it out the other side of the apartment’s hallway to the streets when the doors burst behind them. Infected spilling out into the hall, toppling and crawling over each other in their sickened drive to get to their pathetic little group and tear them to pieces.    
  
Catra glanced ahead of them. This exit led out into a crumbling street, the ground beneath the pavement had slowly been eroded away by years of neglect and rain water washing away the earth below. It made this area a minefield for sinkholes. Usually it worked to their advantage, nothing could really sneak up on this side of Thaymor - be that infected or looters- but now it was one hell of an obstacle.    
  
Bow and Glimmer raced past Catra, who had stopped at the edge of one of the larger sinkholes and was staring down at the rushing water twenty feet below them. She felt her heart begin to race, just the idea of falling into the churning muddy water made her want to throw up. She hated the water.   
  
The screams of the infected catching up behind them brought her back from her thoughts and she ran after Glimmer and Bow. Adora wasn’t far behind Catra, could hear her breathing hard just a foot or so behind. Adora’s friends didn’t hesitate as they leapt over one of the gaps that had opened up in the road, landing on the other side in heaps, rolling to a stop several feet from the edge. The infected wouldn’t make that leap, they’d tumble into the pits below and be washed away. It was smart, Catra liked it.    
  
She sped up, as much as her tired muscles would allow her to. She had to make that jump.  _ Don’t think about the water, just focus _ . It would be easy, Catra has made leaps bigger than this with higher stakes than getting a little wet and muddy.    
  
Catra neared the edge, bunching her muscles and getting ready to jump. Adora was right behind her, doing the same.    
  
It happened fast, so fast that Catra didn’t know what was happening until it was already over.    
  
The pavement at the edge of the pit gave way and slid down into the flood below. Catra and Adora went down with it.    
  
Suddenly Catra was submerged in murky, turbulent water and she didn’t know which way was up. Only that she was being swept away in the icy water.   
  
Muddy water filled her mouth and she desperately kicked out trying to find the surface. Her lungs screamed for air but all they found was water. She saw colours with no name begin to flicker at the edges of her vision. Catra was tossed around like a rag doll in the violent foaming current, but she could not find the surface.    
  
Just as Catra felt herself slipping out of consciousness, a hand yanked her upwards. Catra’s head broke the surface of the river and she coughed and spluttered, her lungs ejecting the water. It burned as it all came back up. She splashed around, trying to keep her head up.    
  
Adora, just next to her, had her fist wrapped in the collar of Catra’s sweater. She coughed as well, straining to keep her head above the surface. A wave crashed over them, and they both went under again, but Adora didn’t let go.    
  
Catra wasn’t sure how long they were in the water, only that her body ached with the effort of trying to stay above, that her muscles burned so much that she wasn’t sure if she could keep going. It felt like hours, but in reality it was probably only a few minutes.   
  
She couldn’t pinpoint the moment they made it out of the river, only that she was dragged out and dumped into the mud on the bank. She crawled further away from the water, coughing and vomiting water until her fingers met grass. Catra collapsed and rolled onto her back, taking deep gulps of sweet, sweet air. Her muscles cramped up with shivers and exhaustion, she could see her breath misting in the air in great billowing clouds as she gasped. But she was alive.    
  
Catra slowly became aware of her surroundings. Above her, trees that had long since shed their leaves stretched their barren branches into the bleak and grey sky. Somewhere, crows were squabbling over something that was probably long dead. To her side, Adora also lay on her back, coughing and wheezing. They were both drenched, cold, and Catra had absolutely no idea where they were.    
  
She sat up, her muscles groaning in protest. Catra had definitely never been here before, but in the distance she could see the rising plume of dark smoke from the explosion in the garage.    
  
Wow, they’d been washed away pretty far. Catra sighed and brought her knees up so she could rest her arms on them. Her damp clothes stuck to her skin, sapping out any warmth her shivering may be giving her.    
  
Adora groaned and eventually sat up as well. Catra could see her observing the damage from the corner of her eye. Water dripped off of both of them, collected in puddles on the ground beneath.   
  
“Fuck.” Adora sighed, putting her head in her hands. Catra heard her draw a shaking breath. “What are we going to do?”    
  
_ “We? _ ” Catra asked, incredulous.    
  
Adora’s head snapped up, snapping back at Catra. “Yes,  _ we _ . You wanna survive out here on your own? I sure don’t.”    
  
Catra hummed, but didn’t credit her with a response. Catra had made it out here by herself for years before Thaymor. Or at least, she’d mostly been on her own. Then she managed to do just fine as a runner for even longer. Catra wasn’t afraid of being outside the walls by herself. She worried more about other people than she did about the infected.    
  
“We need a plan,” Adora continued. Her voice strained with grief and stress.    
  
Catra rolled her eyes and sorely pushed herself to her feet. “Can’t believe I’m stuck out here with you.” She grumbled to herself.    
  
“Yeah, the feeling is mutual, Catra.” Adora glared, tugging her backpack off of her shoulders, Miraculously, she hadn’t lost it in the river. She dumped out the soggy belongings to take inventory of what they had.    
  
Catra grit her teeth at the resentful tone. “You really want to do this right now?”    
  
Adora took a deep breath through her nose, and looked back up at Catra. Her grey eyes were just as full of anger as they had been back at the doors.    
  
“He could have made it through.”    
  
“Adora, you know that there was no way that was happening.” Catra’s chest felt tight with guilt, but Catra knew she had been right.    
  
“You didn’t give him the chance to catch up!” Adora snapped back, getting to her feet.    
  
“Were you even there?” Catra gestured dramatically towards the plume of smoke in the distance. “If I kept that door open, we’d all be dead right now!”    
  
“You can’t know that!” Adora stepped towards Catra, almost getting right in Catra’s face.    
  
Catra ran a hand through her damn, tangled hair in her frustration. “The Screamers were right on him!” She yelled back, “He knew it, I knew it, and fuck!  _ You know it too! _ ”    
  
Adora was right in her face now, Catra could smell the river on her skin. “I know that you just stood there and watched it happen.” She growled.    
  
Catra was beginning to feel claustrophobic with Adora in her space. But she refused to back down.    
  
“What was I going to do? Offer myself up as a snack? That wouldn’t have helped anyone! I held the door as long as I could. If you got your head out of your ass for  _ one second _ , you’d see that.”    
  
Adora fumed, rage and hurt swirling in her expression like she wasn’t sure which one to feel right now. “You killed him. Micah is dead because of you. Glimmer is an orphan.” Adora paused to jab a finger into Catra’s chest. “Because of _ you _ .”    
  
Catra snapped, and shoved Adora back so hard that the other girl fell back into the mud. “I didn’t have a choice.” She snapped back.    
  
Catra had known Adora for a long time. Well no, she’d known  _ of  _ Adora. Seeing her arrive in Thaymor had been a shock. It had reminded Catra of when she herself had arrived, injured and scared. Only Adora had adjusted to life inside the walls much better than Catra had. She was kind, and others liked her. Catra had never seen her temper flare so hot before. But then, Catra had never been around to see her cope with a loss. She supposed she deserved this anger. If hating Catra is what got her through this grief, then whatever. Catra could take it. Deserved it, even.   
  
Adora shakily pulled herself back to her feet, saying nothing more to Catra. She rinsed the mud off her hands at the edge of the water, and then came back up to her bag. Beginning to sort through it. Every now and then, Adora would wipe at her eyes. Catra knew she was crying, but anger still burned inside Catra so she just stared off into the small grove of trees off the bank. Catra’s anger slowly burned away, leaving her feeling hollow and grief stricken once more. Micah had been the only person Catra could call a friend. She knew with certainty that she’d made the only choice she could make, but she still hated herself for it.    
  
She heard Adora sniffle behind her and closed her eyes. The image of Micah’s face just before she’d slammed the door was burned behind her eyelids.    
  
“Alright,” Adora’s voice was rougher than before. “So my flashlight is wrecked but my map is still in once piece. I have no food, an empty canteen, we both have our knives. A lighter and a couple matches, and anything else I had in here probably fell out in the water.”    
  
Catra turned to look at Adora. She had stood back up and was zipping her bag shut again. Adora wouldn’t meet her eyes. Catra looked away.    
  
“Your friends are probably going to head to another safe zone once they’re in the clear.” Catra pointed out. “Where’s the next closest one on your map?”   
  
Adora worked her jaw, “Not close.”    
  
“Where is it?”    
  
Adora glanced around, getting her bearings. “From what I can gather, we got swept to the outskirts. If I’m right, then the next closest zone is Brightmoon.”   
  
Catra fought the urge to wince. “Brightmoon is almost on the other side of the country. Is it really worth it?”    
  
Adora glared at her and shouldered her bag. “I’m going to find my friends.” The way she said it made it clear to Catra that Adora did not consider her one of them. Not that it came as a surprise.    
  
“I could just stay here.” Catra pointed out. She knew the city layout like the back of her hand. Knew where to find supplies and where she could take shelter.    
  
“You want to be alone through the winter?” Adora folded her arms over her chest.    
  
Catra hated to admit it, but no. She did not want to be alone through the winter. It was almost certainly a death sentence. If Catra were going to die, she’d rather not freeze to death.    
  
Catra said nothing. Bringing her arms around herself to try and keep out the chill. “First thing’s first. We have to find shelter and dry off, or we’re not going to get far at all.” 

Adora nodded, turning around to trudge up the bank. Catra followed a few feet behind. 

As it turned out, the tiny grove of trees wasn’t actually tiny at all. It took them almost an hour of tripping and stumbling through the overgrown forest. Catra watched Adora shiver and stumble over roots and rocks hidden under the leaves. She didn’t turn around to check on Catra, and Catra didn’t ask if she was okay. 

By the time they reached the other edge of the forest, the sun had begun to set. Darkness crept in fast as the sun dipped below the horizon. Bringing with it a deeper chill. Together they found an old crumbling apartment above a small department store. Everything these days was falling apart. Luckily though, the inside of the department store seemed to be relatively well preserved. It was picked through already by other survivors, but there were some clothes on the racks. Adora didn’t linger, she found some new clothes and carried them upstairs. 

Catra did linger though, because being alone with Adora made her stomach turn and she wanted a break. Even if it was just for a few minutes, 

Eventually though, the chill the night brought was too much for Catra, and she made her way up the creaky wooden stairs before she lost the light completely. 

It was dusty, and the windows had long since shattered. Adora had changed into her dry clothes, a simple pair of jeans and a thick red sweater. At her side, a jacket was neatly folded. Her damp clothes were hanging off of a sad looking chair in the center of the room. Luckily for them, the ground was concrete. Which meant they could start a fire in here and not worry too much about the ground burning away. 

Catra looked around at the darkening room, everything cast in greys and blue light from the windows. Shadows reaching out from the deepest corners and wrapping its tendrils around everything it could. Behind Adora, a stained mattress. The contents of this shitty single room apartment had been looted long ago. 

Adora had compiled a small pile of broken furniture and papers, and was attempting to light a fire. The warm glow of the match in her fingers illuminated Adora’s features in a soft glow. Her eyes were sad. Catra looked away. 

Catra quickly peeled her damp clothing off, back to Adora, and pulled on the dry set. No sense in being embarrassed right now, Adora wouldn’t look. She was too nice for that. The softness of the dry fabric felt so good, Catra had to sigh in relief. She rubbed her arms, trying to generate some extra warmth. 

While Adora blew on her tiny flame to give it more life, Catra found places to hang her drying clothing. 

By the time she finished, Adora was just feeding paper to the fire to make it grow. Catra tugged her hair out of its tangled pony tail and combed her fingers through it, pulling leaves and other debris from the river. 

Adora leaned back when her tiny flame finally grew into a sustainable fire. She met Catra’s eyes through the flame, and her expression hardened. 

Catra scowled at Adora, a reflex. She made her way over to the mattress and collapsed onto it. Revelling in the warmth from the fire. The mattress smelled like mold and old piss. But it was better than the floor. 

“You’re on first watch.” She grumbled to Adora, then rolled over so her back was to the other girl. 

If Adora protested, Catra didn’t hear it. Exhaustion hit her like a bus, and she was out like a light.


	6. Chapter 6

Catra was woken halfway through the night by Adora shaking her shoulder. It wasn’t rough per se, but it certainly wasn’t gentle. The unexpected touch had made Catra’s anxiety flare, and she woke up with a start. Only barely managing to keep from kicking Adora’s legs out from under her. 

Adora had looked startled by Catra’s reaction, stepping back and holding up her hands to show she meant no harm. Catra had felt frightened, but it quickly got replaced with annoyance. 

“It’s just me. It’s your turn for watch.” Adora’s voice was heavy with fatigue. 

Catra took a moment to look at Adora. She looked like shit, to say the least. The side of her face was puffy and red from the gashes on her face, and the growing bruise. Catra hoped idly that they didn’t get infected because they had nothing to treat that. Finding antibiotics would be a bad gamble, at best. 

Her eyes sported impressively dark bags, and Catra felt something almost akin to sympathy. Catra had lost a friend, not that Anyone else knew that, but so had Adora. Of course, Catra was being blamed for it. But still. 

Catra got up off of the bed and knelt down by the fire, tossing another piece of broken furniture onto it. She watched as Adora settled down on the mattress. She didn’t turn her back to the fire, as Catra had. She faced Catra. Her eyes reflected the flickering light of the fire just before she closed them. Catra watched her for just a moment, noticing how Adora’s face relaxed as she fell asleep. Catra was reminded of their time back in high school. Adora was still very pretty. 

Catra scratched the back of her neck, her finger tracing the subtle outline of a scar, and looked into the embers. The rolling glow of them, almost like they were alive, transfixed her.    
  
Just weeks before her arrival at Thaymor, she’d been captured and held in a place like this. An empty building, a fire roaring in the center of the room.    
  
It had been raining for days, and the weather was muggy and hot. Mosquitoes buzzed loud and high pitched in Catra’s ears while she sat crouched behind a parking median. A gang had moved into the area she’d been staying in for the past month. Catra had gotten used to being alone, but she didn’t like it much at this point. Her shoulder ached from an encounter with a Screamer the previous night. The tussle had led to Catra dislocating it. She’d had to reset it herself. Now she needed food, but with her shoulder out of commission, she couldn’t climb up to the stash she kept hidden in the old dead tree on the other side of town.    
Now she was thinking that maybe she should have more than one stash. Too late for that now, she’d have to resort to stealing.    
Catra peaked over the concrete barrier at the group of people collected outside the old pet store. They all looked rough, muscled, and seasoned in fighting. Catra was tiny in comparison. At the center of the group, stood the largest of them. A man with red hair, slicked back and almost flush with his skull.    
  
Catra wrinkled her nose, he looked so stupid with that haircut. It looked even worse with the ripped up leather jacket he was wearing. Seriously, did all sense of fashion go out with the rest of the world?    
  
She ducked her head back down and rubbed her shoulder, trying to dull the ache. She’d kill for some pain killers right now, but she’d be happy if she just made off with some food.    
  
Her stomach growled angrily, as if to back up her thoughts.    
  
Catra listened carefully as the gang spoke, setting up sentinels and shifts for who would guard the doors through the night. Catra, knowing the area, knew that there was a hole in the back wall she could use to sneak in. She was just barely slim enough to slip through. In and out, easy.    
  
It hadn’t been easy. Catra had waited until night had almost fallen, then made her way around into the back alley. Pulling the rotting boards away as quietly as she could and slipping inside.    
  
She’d been caught almost immediately. She hadn’t expected someone to be in the back room, rooting through the debris for any useful supplies. He’d seen her, and grabbed her by the back of her shirt.    
  
“Well, look what we have here.” The deep voice had growled, and Catra had been dragged cursing and kicking into the front of the shop. Dropped on the ground roughly by the fire.    
  
“Who’s this?” Asked the large man with the red hair.    
  
“Caught her sneaking in the back.” Catra winced as the man kicked her in the ribs to keep her from getting back up.    
  
The big man tsked, and knelt down in front of Catra. He looked amused. “Just what did you think you were doing?”    
  
Catra bared her teeth as the man gripped her jaw, yanking her gaze up to meet his. His face was ugly and scarred. Eyes so dark, they were almost black. In the flickering light of the fire, he looked like a demon.    
  
When she didn’t answer him, he squeezed her jaw until it hurt. “Well?”    
  
“I just wanted food.” She spat, and he squeezed harder still. Catra felt her eyes begin to water from the pain.    
  
“A thief, eh?” He tilted Catra’s face to the side to get a better look. “Didn’t your mama ever teach you that stealing is wrong?”    
  
Catra sneered at him, “Didn’t yours ever teach you the appropriate amount of hair product?”    
  
She was shaken, she knew she was in a tight spot. Catra glanced around the room and found all the exits guarded by another one of the leather clad tough-guy wannabes. Shit.    
  
The red haired man threw Catra against the ground. She felt her nose smash off the pavement, heard the crack. A million colours erupted behind her eyes and she couldn’t see anything past the pain for a few seconds. She felt her mouth fill with blood. Catra coughed and groaned, pushing herself back onto her knees. Tentatively, she touched her nose. Not broken, but she’d definitely have a set of black eyes by the morning. Blood dripped down from her face and stained her shirt.    
  
“Gonna let a kid get under your skin? God, that’s pathetic.” Catra laughed. She spat blood onto the man’s boots.    
  
Catra starred up into the man’s cold eyes, was beginning to think that maybe for once she shouldn’t be trying to poke the bear. But it was too late to back down now. If she died, she died. It wouldn’t matter, there was no one around to miss her.    
  


The red haired man turned to one of his groupies. He held out his hand, an unspoken order. The gang member closest to him fidgeted.    
  
“I dunno, Lashor. she’s just a kid… Maybe we should just let her go?”    
  
The man, Lashor, didn't move. He stared hard and his hand remained out. The groupie pressed his mouth into a line, but he handed over the bat leaning against the wall behind him. Catra met his eyes, found sympathy there. Catra just glared back.    
  
“Gonna go play ball, _ Lashor _ ?” Catra taunted.    
  
Lashor tested the weight of the bat in his hands, switching it from hand to hand to see what he liked better. He settled on his right.    
  
“I think we should teach this brat some manners, huh boys?” Lashor grinned wickedly. A couple of the other gang members chuckled darkly.    
  
Catra barely had time to prepare herself before the first blow hit her in the back, knocking her flat onto her stomach. Catra wheezed as the wind got knocked out of her, coughing and taking a moment to breathe through the pain. Slowly, she pushed herself back up.    
  
“I’ve seen little old grannies hit harder than you.” Catra spat up at him. Her mouth tasted like iron.    
  
Lashor drew the bat back and hit Catra with an underhanded swing, catching her in the gut and knocking her to the side. Catra’s back touched the hot stones surrounding the fire and she sucked in a sharp breath. She spat more blood into the fire. It fizzled and hissed on the hot embers. Catra felt a laugh bubble up, though it hurt to laugh after taking a bat to her stomach.    
  
She didn’t see the next one come down, striking her in the side and Catra’s whole chest exploded in pain. Another hit, and she felt one of her ribs break.    
  
Catra just kept forcing herself to sit back up, laughing at Lashor’s attempts to break her. As though she had anything to live for, to break for.    
  
Catra revelled in the fury building in Lashor’s eyes. Bathed in it. Used it to bait him forward. She continued to spit taunts at him, teasing him with her gasping breaths. She wasn’t sure where this part of her had crawled out from under, but the satisfaction of getting under this man’s skin kept her from staying down.    
  
It only ended when Catra physically couldn’t get up anymore, unable to support her weight after he’d kicked her shoulder back out of the socket and tied her legs together. The group had left her for dead. Catra wheezing through a swollen throat and now definitely broken nose. Blood pooling in her mouth from a combination of her bitten tongue and nose.    
  
When dawn finally rolled around, she hated herself. She hadn’t needed to egg the group on, she could have just apologized and hoped they let her go with a warning. Catra groaned as she tried to inch herself into a sitting position. Every breath was agony, every flexed muscle sent new waves of pain crashing down on her. It was noon before Catra found the will to sit all the way up, and the effort had left her gasping for breath, crying from the pain of her ribs.    
  
Her arm hung limply at her side, dislocated again. Her fingertips tingled from the poor circulation. Catra used her free arm to untie her legs, and stumbled to her feet. The world had spun around her and she almost blacked out. If a Screamer came at her now, she was dead for sure.    
  
Catra found a doorway and braced her limp arm between the door and the frame, and yanked as hard as she could. She re-opened the bite wound on her tongue to keep from screaming. The muffled pop inside her shoulder told her she'd successfully put it back in place. She flexed her fingers experimentally, satisfied to have that over with.    
  
Catra had limped out of the pet store, barely able to stay on her own two feet, and made it back to her hiding spot where she treated what wounds she could and then basically passed out for a few days. Unable to do much but lay there and pray she either died fast or made a quick recovery before someone or something else found her.    
  
Catra blinked, and rubbed at her eyes. Outside the sun was slowly starting to rise again. Catra had accidentally let the fire burn low, and she got up to pile some more wood onto it. Adora lay completely still on the mattress, sound asleep. Catra watched her for a few minutes, wishing she could be asleep too. They may not have any blankets, but the mattress still looked warm and cozy compared to the cold floor Catra had been sitting on for the past several hours. The idea of sharing a bed with Adora though… she shuddered. Not in a million years.   
  
Her stomach rumbled, and Catra sighed. Maybe she could try and dig up some food before Adora woke up. She hadn’t eaten since dawn the previous day, and now that the adrenaline and craziness from the collapse of Thaymor had passed, her body was angrily reminding her to feed it. 

She glanced once more at Adora, then she pushed herself to her feet. Adora may be annoying, even during the best of times. She didn’t really want to go out of her way to find them both food, but they wouldn’t get far without it and she wasn’t sure she wanted to have to endure Adora’s long angsty silence on an empty stomach.    
  
Catra stretched, feeling her bones pop, then made her way back downstairs into the abandoned market below. It was still dark down here, the slowly growing light hadn’t quite managed to illuminate the space yet.

She hoped she wouldn't have to go far to find anything, but she wasn’t about to bet on it. Catra began sifting through what she could of the market. Mostly it was water damaged products, leaves and garbage blown in through the broken windows, and decaying shelves. She managed to find a can, though the label had long since fallen away. Catra shook it experimentally, but couldn’t determine what was inside. She hoped it wasn’t pet food.    
  
Catra dug around for a little while longer, but all she managed to dig up was a long dead cat. The dried husk of its corpse reminded Catra of a movie about Egyptian mummies she’d seen as a kid. She wasn’t anywhere near desperate enough to try and eat that, so she took the singular can of mystery food back upstairs to where she’d left Adora.    
  
The other girl was awake now, sitting up on the mattress and gazing out the open windows into the streets below. Catra wished she’d made some noise on her way up, because by the way Adora quickly wiped at her eyes and avoided looking at Catra, she could only assume she’d been crying.    
  
Catra glanced down at her meagre findings, suddenly not hungry anymore.    
  
“Thought you’d left.” Adora clipped, not taking her gaze off the windows.    
  
“Just went looking for something to eat.” Catra shrugged, tossing the can so that it landed on the mattress near Adora’s thigh.    
  
Adora turned then, frowning down at the mystery can. “Oh. Uh. Thanks.” She muttered, picking it up and examining it. “What is it?”    
  
“How the fuck should I know?” Catra grumbled, slumping back down against the wall near the fire, which was beginning to die down again. She didn’t bother restocking it this time.    
  
Adora sighed through her nose and pulled out her knife, beginning to work at getting it open.    
  
By the smell alone, Catra knew it was dog food. She wrinkled her nose in distaste.    
  
Adora looked forlornly into the can. Neither of them wanted to eat that, but it was all they had. Adora looked back up at Catra, holding the can out to Catra hopefully.    
  
“You first, Princess.” Catra made a face at the mixed brown contents of the can.    
  
Adora seemed to swallow back a gag, but nodded.    
  
Twenty minutes later, they were both back out in the streets trying not to think about the awful aftertaste that the dog food had left them with and deciding which route to take out of the city. They’d fought about it, but eventually Adora got her way and they set off to go the long way around to avoid whatever was left of the horde. 

Catra rolled her eyes when Adora resumed the silent treatment. It was going to be a long, long couple of months. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent most of last night drawing catradora instead of writing catradora so this chapter's a little shorter, but hopefully that's okay aha


	7. Chapter 7

Catra’s attitude was really starting to grate against Adora’s patience. They’d been travelling together now for just over a week, mostly in strained silence. Any time they did talk, Adora was met with snarky replies or a glare. If she was lucky, Catra wouldn’t even acknowledge her. Though, Adora couldn’t say she’d been behaving much better. She wasn’t being snarky or sarcastic -usually-, but she often ignored Catra completely unless she couldn’t avoid it. She was getting tired of it though. She missed her friends. Missed talking and laughing.   
  
Adora grunted with effort as she pulled herself up onto the top of an old broken down transport truck. She stood up and dusted her palms off. She’d only just barely managed to snag the edge if she jumped as high as she could. Catra stood impatiently on the road below, glaring up at Adora with her arms crossed.    
  
“How am I supposed to get up there?” She asked, though her tone lacked its usual bite. Catra had been a little more subdued today. Maybe this could be considered a good mood for her.    
  
Adora sighed and glanced at the sky, praying to no one in particular for more patience. She looked back down. “Just hang on a second,”    
  
“Take your time.” Catra grumbled, rolling her eyes.    
  
Adora shook her head and turned her attention to the road ahead of them. They’d been following what had used to be a highway. Her map had told her that it led in the general direction of where they needed to go. The pavement had long since split apart, and grass grew in patches around the piled up, rusting vehicles. They’d had very few impassible obstacles like this truck, Adora just called that luck. Luck runs out.   
  
She couldn’t see any infected ahead, so she felt safe turning her back to the road. She got down on her stomach and hung her arm down for Catra to reach for.    
  
The other girl jumped up and gripped Adora’s wrist. Her fingers were freezing, and she was heavier than Adora thought she’d be. Catra pulled herself up with Adora’s help, but shoved Adora away when she’d tried to steady Catra as she stood. She’d stumbled and almost fell backwards over the edge.    
  
Adora had gotten used to this. Catra lashing out any time Adora had to touch her. She never wanted to, but sometimes the situation called for it. She’d wondered why for a few days, until she’d seen Catra’s sweater ride up her back and reveal some nasty looking scars. Catra had been especially protective of her back and shoulders, so Adora had begun to wonder if the scars had something to do with her aversion to touch. Or if Catra really was just like that, what happened to her? Even Adora didn’t sport that many scars.    
  
Adora steadied herself and shot a look at the back of Catra’s head. She was looking out over the trees on either side of the road. A cold wind buffeted them both and made the other girl’s hair blow into her eyes. Catra reflexively reached up to brush it back behind her ear.    
  
Adora wondered if Catra was aware how pretty she was, and felt a pang of jealousy. Looks didn’t matter much during the end of the world, but somehow Catra made it seem effortless. Adora shook her head, reminding herself that she was pissed at Catra still.    
  
Initially, Adora couldn’t believe that Catra had shut the door. Had been livid, because she could have helped Micah. Adora could have helped him. But she hadn’t even gotten the chance. Adora wasn’t usually big on holding grudges. In fact, the longest she’d held one before this had been an hour, and it was because Glimmer had accidentally knocked Adora’s bag into a disgusting pond and ruined everything inside. By the end of the day, they were best friends again. Laughing and joking. Glimmer even replaced her bag.   
  
This was different though. Glimmer’s dad was dead. Adora had been forced to almost relive her own dad’s death. The wound that had been healing ever since they died had been torn back open even wider than before in the wake of the loss. Catra had been the one to make the call, to close the door. She didn’t even seem sorry about it.   
  
Adora had been plagued with memories and flashbacks of the hospital every night since.    
  
It always started the same. Adora, running as fast as her feet could carry her through the streets and through backyards she wasn’t familiar with. Dodging infected, that at the time, she had thought were just people driven crazy by a flu. In a sense, she was right. They were. She just hadn’t known how bad the situation was until later that night.    
  
Adora had stumbled up to the hospital, her lungs burning from running all that way. It was utter chaos outside the hospital. Crowds of people were flocking out the main doors and racing each other to get to their cars. Adora remembered thinking how weird that was, but her thoughts had been overridden by the need to find her parents and see if they were okay. Cars honked in the parking lot and Adora turned to see what the commotion was. She stared in disbelief as some man flung himself onto the windshield of a car trying to pull out of the lot. Screaming and bashing at the glass madly. Adora had only just barely managed to make it inside the main doors as the car came barrelling through the glass and came to a screeching halt just before it went through the nurses station just inside the doors.    
  
Adora coughed as the dust cleared and turned around to observe the damage. The man who had attacked the windshield was dead, impaled on a large chunk of glass between the doors. The driver didn’t seem to be any luckier. She hung halfway out the shattered windshield. They had been the first people Adora had seen die amongst the chaos. She didn’t even know who they were, but sometimes she still saw them when she closed her eyes.    
  
Adora sighed and looked away from her companion before she could notice Adora staring.    
  
It had been the recurring dreams about her parents that made Adora start to let go of her resentment over Catra’s choice. She didn’t want to forgive Catra but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that Catra really may not have had a choice. Like Adora hadn’t had a choice back at the hospital.   
  
“So,” Catra cleared her throat, turning back towards Adora. “How much more of this?”    
  
“Of what?” Adora asked, looking down over the edge of the tuck. That drop was definitely going to hurt her knees.    
  
Catra jumped down without even judging the distance. She landed gracefully, as she always did. “Of this stupid fucking road? We’ve been on this route for days. It’s boring.”    
  
Adora jumped down more carefully. She was right, it really hurt her knees. She also felt some of the blisters that had formed on her heels burst with the pressure. She winced, and stumbled forward into the next car on the road.    
  
Catra snickered at her.    
  
Adora stood up straight, and shrugged. “I don’t know. A while. Sorry I didn’t pick the scenic route just for you.”    
  
Catra almost smiled, “You should have. Would have been more fun.”    
  
Adora was surprised. Catra seemed almost… normal, right now.    
“Anywhere specific you’re thinking of?” Adora asked, finding herself desperate for conversation that didn’t end in grunts or scowls.    
  
The tense atmosphere had left Adora feeling even lonelier than she felt when she’d actually been surviving alone. Even if the conversation was with  _ Catra _ , she’d take it.    
  
Catra hummed in her thought, stepping into the same leisurely pace Adora had been fighting with since they started their journey. Catra did not move fast unless she wanted to move fast. Just another reason that Adora found Catra so insufferable. 

“The coast.” Catra seemed to settle, kicking a stone and watching it bounce down the broken path ahead.    
  
“You don’t strike me as the beach type.” Adora observed, “More like a. Mosh pit kind of girl.”    
  
Catra made a face, “I hate crowds.”    
  
Adora glanced at Catra, frowning. “Really? You’re always in the middle of things causing trouble, though.”    
  
“No,” Catra corrects, “I’m usually by myself. Trouble finds me, and I just teach them a lesson.”    
  
Adora tried not to laugh at the tough guy attitude. It wasn’t anything new, really. But earlier that day she’d heard Catra sneeze, and the image started to fall apart.   
  
“I’ve seen you deck a dude for grabbing your shoulder.” Adora agreed, having to look away to hide her smile.    
  
“I told him not to touch me.” Catra replied defensively. “He had it coming.”    
  
“Sure, sure.” Adora tried to sound convincing. “Have you ever uh. Tried, I don’t know. Not getting violent?”    
  
Catra scoffed, but didn’t answer right away. Adora thought they had returned to their usual silence but Catra surprised her again with a shockingly honest response. “I try not to. People always touch when I’m not expecting it.”    
  
Adora raised her eyebrows. “Oh, so when it comes to fight or flight, you’re a fight person.”    
  
Catra gave Adora a withering look. “You make it sound so dumb.”    
  
“It’s not. It’s probably a good thing nowadays.” Adora shrugged. “Besides, there are other annoying things about you.”    
  
“Excuse me?”    
  
Adora hadn’t meant it as an insult, but Catra’s expression suggested it had been received as one. She held up her hands in submission. “I had never met someone who manages to be so full of piss and vinegar before I met you.”    
  
“Well maybe you haven’t met enough people.” Catra grumbled, kicking another stone and watching it arch through the air. “There are definitely others out there.”   
  
“I think one of you is enough for me.” Adora allowed herself to smile.    
  
“You’re no party, either, Princess. Don’t go getting all high and mighty on me.” Catra fired back.    
  
“What?” Adora guffawed, whirling to face Catra.    
  
“Okay, you’re like. The strictest person ever. You’re always hauling ass at dawn, god forbid you let me sleep longer than 4 hours.”    
  
“Well I don’t like to waste daylight-”    
  
Catra raised her hand, cutting Adora off. “I’m not done. Don’t interrupt me.”   
  
Adora grunted, annoyed. But stayed silent.    
  
“When you sleep? You’re almost always tossing and turning. It’s like you’re a fish, flip flopping about all night. Annoying as fuck. And you plan like, every fucking step you take. What’s with that, anyways? Have you never heard of improvising? And don’t  _ even _ get me started on the hero complex.”    
  


“Is that all?” Adora asks, raising a brow at her travel companion. 

Catra hesitated. “Yes, actually. But I’m sure you have lots more I don’t know about yet.” 

  
“Okay, well, worrying and planning is better than just jumping into the unknown. How many times have you been jumped by Screamers since we left the city? How many times have I had to wash blood out of your clothes and watch you stitch up some truly avoidable cuts? All of it could have been avoided if you listened to me.” Adora folded her arms over her chest, glaring.    
  
“Aw,do you worry about me, Princess? Do you feel like you need to save me?” Catra smirked. “I’m a grown up, I can take care of myself.”    
  
“You’re incredibly reckless. Of course I’m worried.” Adora scoffed.    
  
“That’s embarrassing for you.” Catra teased, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. 

She swerved towards Adora and she thought their shoulders were going to bump together. Catra straightened out at the last second though and kicked a decently sized stone, hard. It flew through the sky and crashed into the windshield of a car several feet ahead. Adora rolled her eyes, she didn’t know why she had expected anything else.   
  
Both her and Catra jumped when the car alarm started to go off. Seven years later and the alarm still worked. Impressive. The loud whirring beeping made Adora have to close her eyes and take a calming breath, trying to slow her heart. Every infected in the area was going to hear that noise and come running.    
  
Catra’s shoulders slumped and she groaned to the sky. “Well, that’s just my luck.” She grumbled.    
  
Adora straightened when she heard the screams of alerted infected in the distance.    
  
Catra had the nerve to look sheepish. “Is this what you meant by reckless?”    
  
“You’re going to get us both killed one of these days.” Adora tried really hard to keep the annoyance out of her voice. She was enjoying this side of Catra a lot more than the snotty brat she’d been dealing with.   
  
Catra rolled her eyes and waved Adora after her. They left the road before infected could start showing up and trying to eat them.    
  
“So maybe we could dip down into the valley and come back up in a few miles? Provided we don’t run into a horde or a gang. I guess then we could come back, the horn may have died by then… Oh but then there would be the infected here to worry about. ” Adora rambled, though judging by the slump in Catra’s shoulders as she began half sliding, half walking down the steep incline that she’d managed to reignite Catra’s annoyance.    
  
“You’re doing it, again.” Catra snipped, shooting Adora a glare over her shoulder. “Just take a chill pill, Adora. We’ll deal with whatever happens, when it happens.”    
  
Anxiety turned in Adora’s stomach at the idea, but she nodded. She supposed Catra had a point. “Aren’t you worried about what we’ll find down there?”    
  
“No, Adora. I don’t spend every waking moment worrying about what may or may not happen.”    
  
“Yeah, but-”    
  
“Adora!” Catra hissed her name through her teeth, exasperated. “Shut up!”    
  
Adora didn’t make another sound.    
  
Catra was silent too through almost their entire descent. The air was cold, which was nice because the hill only got steeper. Before they knew it, it became more of a downwards climb. The hill began dropping off in short ridges. Catra and Adora were breathing hard, their breath billowing in white clouds from the effort of trying not to fall to their deaths.    
  
“This valley runs deeper than I thought it did.” Adora panted, carefully lowering herself down off of an overhanging rock, onto a small ledge below. Catra dropped onto the ledge next to her.    
  
“No shit.” She grumbled, “Not too adept at map reading, are you?”    
  
“I’m learning.” Adora sniffed, but smiled despite herself. There was no heat behind Catra’s grumpiness right now.    
  
“Learn faster.” Catra lowered herself onto the edge again, and dropped down below Adora. Rocks fell off the edge she stood on and bounced down the hill at a rapidly accelerating pace until Adora couldn’t see them anymore.    
  
Adora slipped down to join Catra. It was almost an hour of this before the ground began to flatten out again. The muscles in Adora’s arms and shoulders burned from constantly having to lower herself. Catra kept rubbing one of her shoulders and wincing, a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead despite the cold. Adora wondered just how much pain she was in, but didn’t dare ask.    
  
She glanced down at the last drop. Below were mostly gravel and boulders fallen from the ridges above them, but at least they were done climbing. Adora sat herself on the edge, intending to slowly lower herself down.    
  
Catra had other ideas.    
  
“Fuck it.” She announced boldly, and jumped right off the edge.    
  
Adora felt her stomach leap into her throat, watching Catra land on a larger boulder, stumble, and roll off of it. She landed with a clatter in a pile of gravel with a hard smacking noise. That couldn’t have been painless.   
  
“Catra!” Adora gasped, slipping off the ledge and landing on her feet in the gravel below.    
  
Catra sat up, her entire back was grey with stone dust. She laughed and slapped her knees. “That was actually kind of fun.”    
  
“Oh my god, why did you do that?” Adora scolded, picking up a small stone and throwing it into Catra’s lap.    
  
“Ow! Hey! Relax, Princess.” Catra laughed again, holding up her hands to protect herself from more pebbles.    
  
Her laugh was surprisingly light and high pitched. Actually, it was kind of cute. Adora was still mad though. “Why are you like this?” Adora grumped, dropping into the gravel a few feet away. Grateful to be finally done climbing.    
  
“For the thrill of it.” Catra smirked, shrugging. She winced, and grabbed her shoulder.    
  
“Did you hurt yourself on our way down?”    
  
“Nah, it’s an old injury. Dislocated it a few times.” Catra waved Adora’s concern off. “It’s fine. I just need to relax for a bit.”    
  
She pursed her lips, but didn’t press any further. Catra’s good mood seemed to be lasting. Adora almost forgot she was supposed to be mad at her.    
  
“Maybe we should find shelter for the night, call it quits early today.”    
Catra eyed her for a moment and Adora was afraid Catra was going to snap, but she nodded. Getting to her feet slowly. “Yeah, okay. We deserve a break anyways. Your drill sergeant method of travel is exhausting.” 

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Adora got back to her feet as well. Surveying the area.

Their backs to the cliff, all other sides were dense with trees. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear the soft trickle of running water. She figured that’s where they should head. Maybe find an overhang or even just a thicker group of trees to hide in for the night. 

“You weren’t exactly open to criticism.” Catra mumbled, looking up at the sky to presumably gauge the time. 

“Right, well. If you need more sleep, we can start leaving later in the day.” At this rate, they’d never make it to Brightmoon before the worst of winter hit. But they wouldn’t make it at all if they slipped up because they were exhausted, either. 

Catra said nothing, but she didn’t glare or mutter under her breath so Adora assumed it was a good idea. 

Adora readjusted the bag on her shoulders, gesturing towards the sound of water. Catra rolled her eyes, but took the lead.


	8. Chapter 8

Adora bit her lip with concentration, holding the lit end of the match up to the small pile of leaves. Watching the edges catch fire and blowing gently until they had a roaring flame going. As the fire grew larger, it chased away the chill. It had started raining and Adora and Catra both had gotten a little wet. Luckily, they found an overhanging cliff like Adora hoped they would.    
  
Catra busied herself with laying down their blankets, which they’d scavenged from stores before they left the city completely behind. Her fingers smoothed out the edges, and Adora couldn’t help thinking that these blankets weren’t enough. Not for the winter. The nights were already beginning to drop below freezing. Adora often woke up shivering part way through the night and struggled to fall back to sleep. The fires helped, but they’d have to start finding better shelters soon or at least decent sleeping bags. And better clothes. Adora’s scavenged letterman jacket was warm, but it wouldn’t do much when the winter storms began to move in. Catra still only wore her black hoodie, and Adora had seen her shivering in the mornings before the sun chased away the frost. 

“Stop worrying.” Catra chided her, settling down on her blanket.    
  
“What?” Adora asked, snapping out of her thoughts.    
  
“You’re making that face.” Catra leaned back on her elbows, watching Adora cooly.    
  
“I make a face?”    
  
“Yeah, you get all intense and your eyebrows do this twitchy thing.”    
  
Adora wasn’t sure how to respond, but she made an effort to relax her face.    
  
Catra watched her, clearly amused by whatever new expression Adora was wearing.    
  
Adora looked away from her, embarrassed. She couldn’t help it, there was a lot to be worried about.    
  
Catra lolled her head back, staring at the roof of their overhang. The soft sounds of freezing rain droned in the background, interrupted occasionally by the snapping and crackling of the fire or a gust of wind.    
  
“Do you want me to take the first shift again?” Adora asked, only assuming because this had been their routine.    
  
Catra hummed, lazily dragging her gaze back down and onto Adora. She wasn’t sure how Catra could possibly look so comfortable with only a blanket between her and the dirt, but she did.    
  
“You can sleep first, if you want.” Catra shrugged one of her shoulders. “I don’t care.”    
  
Adora blinked, surprised again that Catra was being nice. “I’m not really tired, to be honest.”    
  
“I’m not either.”    
  
Adora looked out at the grey clouds and the sleet coming down. She hoped it cleared up by tomorrow when they set out again, but she wasn’t so sure. She’d hung her jacket up on a stick as close to the fire as she was willing to risk, but the rest of her damp clothing stayed on. She was not going to sit half naked out here, in front of Catra of all people. She could put on her spare clothes, but they were still covered in mud from the river and she preferred damp over muddy. She didn’t love the idea of chafing either.    
  
“Got any food left in that pack of yours?” Catra asked, eyeing Adora’s backpack hopefully.    
  
Adora nodded, “Yeah, a bit.” She pulled it closer and opened it up. “Let’s see, I have canned beans, more canned beans, aaand surprise, surprise, canned beans.”    
  
Adora hated canned beans.    
  
Catra sat up and held out her hand, undeterred. “I guess I’ll take the canned beans, then.”    
  
Adora smiled, tossing her one of the cans. She put the others away. They’d been splitting cans of food to make them last longer. As long as it wasn’t more dog food, Adora didn’t really mind. Her breath had smelled terrible for the rest of the day, after that. She didn’t love catching whiffs of it on Catra’s clothing, either. She shuddered at the memory.   
  
She watched as Catra stabbed her knife into the lid of the can and began the slow work of cutting it open. Adora caught the smell of beans coming from the tin and she resisted the urge to gag. Maybe she’d let Catra have the whole can.    
  
“You know what I miss?” Adora mused, watching Catra as she sheathed her knife again.    
  
“What do you miss?” Catra humoured her, but it was clear she wasn’t entirely paying attention. She knew Catra didn’t mind beans, and she looked ravenous.    
  
“Burgers.” Adora sighed, “I could really go for a burger, fries, and a milkshake from that diner behind the high school.”    
  
Catra glanced up, a spoonful of beans halfway to her mouth. “Oh yeah, that nautical themed one? Sea Hawk’s?”    
  
Adora brightened, nodding. “Yeah, me and my teammates used to go there after games and celebrate wins. Or cheer ourselves up after a loss. Whichever.”    
  
Catra hummed, “That dude who ran it was so weird.”    
  
“Yeah, he was. I actually kinda liked him,” Adora shrugged. “His little sea shanties were so stupid but they always made everyone laugh. Catchy too.”    
  
Catra groaned, evidently remembering something unfortunate. “I still get those fucking things stuck in my head sometimes. It’s been like, almost eight years.”    
  
Adora nodded, smiling at the memory. “Did you go there often?”    
  
“I spent a lot of late nights there. Just. Hanging out.” Catra shrugged, turning her attention back to the beans.    
  
“With your friends?”    
  
“Didn’t have any. My parents were never home, so I’d just go hang out in that corner booth by the kitchen. Or at the school, in the library.”    
  
Adora’s smile faded. Catra said it like it was no big deal. Just a fact of life.    
  
“You always seemed like a loner,” Adora watched Catra’s expression carefully. “But I didn’t think you had no one.” 

  
“It’s not a big deal, Adora. I liked being alone. Still do.”    
  
“No one likes being alone all the time.”    
  
“Well  _ I do _ .” Catra’s voice got a hard edge to it, and she handed Adora the half eaten can of beans without looking at her.    
  
“Sorry,” Adora muttered, taking them. Though she had no appetite for them. “You know, I wanted to be your friend.”   
  
Catra frowned and her eyes flashed with an emotion Adora couldn’t name. “You already had a bunch of friends.”    
  
“Yeah, but you seemed nice. I wanted to get to know you. I just.” Adora shrugged, poking at the beans to avoid looking at Catra. “I was shy. And a little intimidated by you.”    
  
Catra laughed and looked directly into Adora’s eyes. “ _ You _ were intimidated by  _ me? _ ” 

Adora frowned, “Yeah, why is that so surprising? I’ve seen you punch people three times your size.”    
  
“Well I’d understand being intimidated  _ now _ . But back then? Please, I was a punching bag.” Catra scoffed. “I was happy to leave that place behind.”    
  
Adora nodded, poking at the beans some more. She couldn’t relate entirely to that sentiment, she missed the simpler times and all her friends. She wouldn’t trade Glimmer and Bow for the world, but…    
  
“What were you going to do once you graduated?”    
  
Catra tensed up a little, “I was going to apply to an… art school.” She muttered the end of her sentence so quietly, Adora almost didn’t catch it.    
  
“You’re an artist?” Adora perked up, “Do you still make stuff?”    
  
“I spent every night drawing before the collapse.” Catra seemed a little uncomfortable with the subject but Adora wanted to know more.    
  
“What did you draw?” Adora scooted a little closer to Catra, earning herself a glare but she didn’t care.    
  
“Just stuff, Adora. People. Places. Things. I don’t know. It’s not a big deal, I’m not that great or anything.” Catra began fidgeting with the edges of her blanket.    
  
“Would you show me some time?” Adora gave her best impression of puppy dog eyes. “Please?”    
  
Catra scowled at her, and shoved Adora’s shoulder so hard that Adora tumbled backwards, laughing. “Only if you promise to stop interrogating me.”    
  
“Deal.” Adora grinned, sitting back up again.    
  
Catra shot her another bitter look, but Adora felt no heat. She turned her attention back to the canned beans and forced herself to swallow a few mouthfuls. That was all she could manage, though. She glanced up at Catra, and saw that she was being watched with an expression of passive amusement.    
  
“What?” Adora sighed, setting the can down.    
  
The corners of Catra’s mouth quirked upwards, but she shook her head. “I have a question for you.”    
  
Adora waited.    
  
“What was the beginning like for you?”    
  
“What do you mean?”    
  
“After the school. You seemed fine when I checked on you-”    
  
“Yeah, that was cute, by the way.” Adora smirked, and Catra’s cheeks darkened.    
  
“Not the point.” She snapped, avoiding eye contact.    
  
Adora thought back, her good mood slipping away as she remembered that night. “Uh, my dad got bit, I think. I was waiting to hear back from my mom. They’d gone to the ER to get him checked out. It was actually during the exam that it happened. Uh, I went to the hospital myself not long after you messaged me, I think. It was a long time ago.”    
Catra nodded, “Yeah, I’d just gotten attacked at the school. I texted you because you were the only other person I came close to giving a shit about.”    
  
Adora raised her eyebrows, but Catra didn’t elaborate. She motioned with her hand for Adora to continue her story. Adora hadn’t intended to go into detail, but something about the interested expression on Catra’s face just seemed to draw the whole story out of her.   
  
After Adora had finished reeling from the car crashing through the doors of the hospital - it had involved a lot of freaking out- Adora had wandered deeper into its depths. It was an odd feeling, wandering through a mostly empty hospital. Who just leaves a hospital unattended in the middle of a flu outbreak? The silence unsettled Adora, anxiety settling heavy in her bones. Everything inside her screamed that she needed to turn around and leave, but she refused to leave without her parents.    
  
Adora anxiously played with the straps on her backpack as she crept through the empty halls. The lights seemed too bright after the darkness outside, too warm after the cold fall air. Somewhere up ahead, among the maze of hallways, Adora heard screaming. She froze, listening. The screaming continued. A woman, Adora thought. She was scared, had to be. This wasn’t like the screeching on the phone or at the front door of her home. This one was full of terror. Without thinking, Adora broke into a sprint. Following the noise best she could, but the sound echoed through the confusing mess of passageways and Adora got turned around. The screaming stopped, cut off suddenly.    
  
“Hello?” Adora called, but no one answered her.    
  
Helplessly, she turned in a circle. She had no idea where she was, where the woman was or how to get to her. In her turn, Adora saw one of the walls was stained with bloody hand prints. Swallowing, Adora tracked their path with her eyes to a set of frosted glass, automatic doors. They were stuck partially open. The hand prints become a mass of bloody smears near the center, like whoever had been bleeding had tried to pry the doors open with their bare hands.    
  
Cautiously, Adora stepped up to the gap and peered inside. Without realizing it, she’d found what she came here for. The ER. The letters EMERGENCY ROOM hung on a sign chained to the ceiling just above a rounded nurses station sitting in the center of the room. Half of the lights were off, but that didn’t strike Adora as weird. She’d been to the ER in the middle of the night before, they turned the lights off so patients waiting in the beds could try and rest while doctors fixed them up. It definitely didn’t help her nerves though.    
  
Adora pushed apart the sliding doors a little farther, accidentally getting blood on her hands.    
  
“Ugh,” she mumbled to herself, stepping through the doors and into the eerily silent department.    
  
Immediately, Adora slipped in a puddle of blood that had been hidden by a gurney and knocked a tray of medical instruments over with a loud clatter. Adora clutched her chest, feeling her heart beating painfully against the inside of her ribs. The noise had been a sharp contrast to the otherwise silent hospital wing.    
  
Shakily, Adora knelt down to pick up the tray she’d spilled over the floor. As she carefully piled scissors, scalpels, and other mystery instruments back together, she heard scuffling behind the nurse’s station.    
  
“Hello?” Adora called out, standing back up and setting the tray back on the gurney.    
  
No one answered her.    
  
“I’m just looking for my parents,” She continued, stepping towards the station.    
  
Again, she was met with silence.    
  
Adora hesitated, then placed her hands up against the desk’s edges. Cautiously, she began leaning forward to see what was making the noise.    
  
It was just an oscillating fan, blowing papers off of the desk. Adora reached down to switch it off and let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.    
  
Adora sighed and cast her eyes around the room. How could no one be here? She just couldn’t seem to wrap her head around it. Where were all the nurses? The doctors?    
  


She spent the next several minutes slowly making her way through the ER. The more she searched, the more mess she saw. The place was an absolute train wreck. Carts were knocked over, blood was splattered on curtains and the floor. There were beds and blankets laying knocked on their sides, strewn haphazardly throughout the floor. Adora had to be careful where she stepped because it seemed like there was vomit all over the place. The smell of it made Adora herself gag, and have to take a few deep breaths through her mouth. She knew by now of course that things definitely were not right, that a normal flu didn’t drive out the entire staff and all the patients of a big city hospital. She wished, looking back, that she’d given up then and turned and left. Maybe not knowing what had happened with her parents would have been better. Adora could have imagined they made it out for a while. Or that they died quickly painlessly when Adora eventually learned more about what had really been going on.  
  
Adora came up to one of the last curtains in the ER, and she pulled it back like she had been doing for all the others. Usually she just found empty beds, some blood, or an overturned gurney. She’d been expecting the same for this one as well.   
  
She was not prepared for the scene that painted itself before her eyes.   
  
The first thing she saw was her mom’s face. Eyes half open, staring at nothing. Her normally grey eyes were beginning to cloud over with white. The familiar features that had Adora had taken for granted her entire life, once so full of life, now sat limp and motionless. Blood had dried at the corners of her mouth, in her hair. Adora felt her heart racing, crashing around inside her chest and beating itself black and blue with the impossible realization that her mom is dead and that’s what she’s looking at. Her throat began to tighten.   
  
Movement over her mom’s body somehow drew her out of her shock long enough to realize that something, no. Some _one_ was leaning over her. The sounds reached her next, the wet, gurgling breathing noises. The animalistic grunting, and the sickening sound of tearing. A man, as much as Adora could tell, was ripping into her mom’s stomach. Blood pooled on the ground, soaking into her mom’s favourite cozy sweater and the man’s pant legs. Bits of flesh and intestine flecked the ground. Her mom’s flesh and intestine. The thick, nauseating scent of blood hung thick in the air around them, and Adora couldn’t help but wretch the spaghetti she’d eaten earlier all over the hospital floor.   
  
The noise made the man currently eating her mother whip around. Adora had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. It was her father, face stained with blood and bits of skin stuck between his snarling teeth. His face was flush with fever, eyes wild and rolling. A mix of tears and blood ran from his eyes. Adora barely recognized him. If it weren’t for his dorky comicon t-shirt, Adora may not have even made the connection.   
  
Her father stumbled to his feet, unbalanced and twitching. Adora saw the bandage on his arm from where he must have gotten his stitches, though it was stained with blood. Be that her mothers, his own, or someone else’s, Adora couldn’t be sure.   
  
“Dad?” She whimpered, taking a step backwards. Her heel knocked against a tray, and her dad jerked his head almost ninety degrees sideways. The movement was so inhuman that Adora gasped. Her father jerked his head in the other direction. His hands shook so hard, she couldn’t make out his individual fingers. Only that they were held in a vaguely claw-like position.   
  
A high pitched noise rose in her dad’s chest, it crescendoed quickly and became an ear splitting screeching noise. She recognized it from her phone call with her mom earlier. The thing that was clearly not her father anymore leapt forward and Adora almost fell over in her scrambled attempt to run in the opposite direction.   
  
Her dad chased her with a single mindedness that Adora hadn’t expected. She raced back towards the nurses station and vaulted over the top. Her foot caught on the top though and she crashed into the ground. Rolling under the desk and tangling her arms in all of the computer wires stored underneath. Adora didn’t have time to see if she was hurt, because her dad hurled himself headlong over the desk and collided on the surface above her head.   
  
Adora whimpered again, fear flooding her and making it hard to think. She yanked her arm but only managed to tangle her wrist up in the mess. Her father rolled off of the desktop and landed on Adora’s legs.   
  
In a second, her father was clawing his way up her legs. She kicked out as hard as she could. Foot connecting with his neck and knocking him backwards. Adora yanked her arm harder and finally managed to free herself.   
  
Her father was getting back up. She clambered up and over the desk and flung herself towards the sliding doors. She barely managed to grasp the edges when she was yanked backwards back into the ER. Hot, rancid breath overwhelmed her and she threw herself backwards. Knocking them both onto the floor.   
  
She grappled with her dad for several seconds and was eventually pinned down. Teeth snapping inches from her throat, held back only by Adora’s weakening grip on his shoulders.   
  
In a last, desperate attempt to free herself, Adora threw one of her hands out for something, anything to get her dad off of her.   
  
Her fingers grasped the cool edge of something metal. She wrapped her hand around it, clutching it desperately, and swung it into her dad’s neck. He froze on top of her, the screeching noise tapering into a wet gurgling. Blood began seeping out of his mouth, pooling on Adora’s chest and soaking her clothes. Her dad’s struggle got weaker, and weaker, and eventually he collapsed.   
  
Adora gasped and shoved the dead weight off of her, scrambling backwards until her back was up against the glass of the sliding doors. Her dad lay motionless where she’d tossed him, a pair of scissors sticking out of the side of his neck. Blood continued to pool around him. Dark crimson in contrast to the white floor or the ER.   
  
Adora felt a sob tear its way out of her chest, raw and painful. She’d killed him. Killed her own dad.   
  
Adora ran her fingers over the edges of the blanket she’d been sitting on for what must have been the hundredth time as she finished recounting her story to Catra.   
  
“That’s… intense.” Catra muttered. Her expression had remained passive, but her voice had taken on a hoarse sound.   
  
Adora shrugged, “Yeah, well. Who doesn’t have a sad story, these days?”   
  
“Adora, there are lots of people who haven’t had to kill one of their parents. That seriously blows. I’m sorry.” Catra raised one of her hands and started to reach towards Adora, but at the last second she balled her fist up and placed it back in her lap.   
  
Adora supposed she appreciated the sentiment. “Sorry for rambling about it.”  
  
Catra shook her head, “You didn’t. Don’t worry about it.”   
  
Adora wasn’t sure what to say. She felt like she’d just made herself vulnerable, and felt compelled to pull herself into a ball and hide until morning. She rubbed her arms, trying to pass her discomfort off as being cold.   
  
Catra seemed to catch on though, her eyes flashing. She took a deep breath. “Alright then, I have a story for you too.” 


	9. Chapter 9

Catra had listened to Adora’s story on the edge of her proverbial seat. Adora had started her story with a lighthearted tone, but it hadn’t gone unnoticed by Catra when her voice began to crack. To waver. When the shell shielding Adora’s true emotions from sight began to crumble. When she started talking about finding her mom, about how her dad tried to kill her, and how she’d ultimately put a stop to it, Adora had looked like she was going to start crying. Empathy had welled in Catra’s chest, surprising her. She’d heard lots of sad stories about the things survivors were forced to do to keep living. She’d heard stories that were even arguably worse than Adora’s, though not by much. Catra had never felt anything other than a little saddened by any of that. Usually, Catra was struck with the cold, dead feeling of apathy.   
  
But when Adora’s voice finally broke and she stopped speaking at the end of her story, Catra wanted nothing more than to make Adora smile again. To lighten her mood. However, Catra had no happy stories to tell, and watching Adora fold in on herself was equally as hard as listening to her hurting.    
  
“Alright then, I have a story for you too.”    
  
Adora frowned, and lifted her eyes from the ground. Adora’s eyes, Catra had noticed since pairing up with her for this journey, tended to reflect the colours around her. Right now they caught the darkening, stormy blue of the sky.    
  
“Is it a good story?” Adora asked, leaning forward with interest that Catra hadn’t been expecting.    
  
“Uh. It’s not funny, if that’s what you mean.” Catra smiled apologetically. 

“You don’t strike me as a comedian.” Adora smiled softly. It was forced, but she was trying.    
  
“I beg to differ.” Catra snorted, relieved to see Adora’s real smile shine through. Since when was she able to tell the difference?    
  
“Go on, tell your story. I’m listening.” Adora leaned back on her hands, watching Catra intently.    
  
Catra nodded. “Alright, so it was. I don’t know. Maybe a month or so after you joined up at Thaymor...”    
  
Catra had been sent out on a run, and had been given a list of things the safe zone needed desperately. Mostly it was medications, it was almost always medications or gasoline for the generators. Supplies like good winter clothing, weapons, food, anything was welcome and could be put to use somehow. But Catra was the best at finding the really hard to get stuff. She had a knack for getting into places that other people couldn’t, and was willing to do things that others would tap out of. Essentially, if it was dangerous, Catra would still do it.    
  
She’d become especially adept at scaling buildings and getting over obstacles that seemed impossible. If life were still like the Before, Catra may even be really into parkour because the adrenaline that came from making quick escapes in impossible places made her feel alive. Standing on the edge of a roof, forty stories off the ground made her feel like she could really breathe. She had nothing to lose if she fell, no one to miss her, and through the years since her meeting with Lashor’s gang she’d pushed that boundary further and further. She enjoyed being outside the wall.    
  
There were no people out here. At least, the people that were out here were few and far between. Catra normally avoided any survivors she found. Technically she wasn’t supposed to. She was supposed to direct them to the safe zone if she thought they seemed okay. But Catra had no faith in other people, and frankly, they annoyed her.    
  
Basically, Catra saw other human beings outside the safe zone, and Catra would avoid them like. Well, the plague.    
  
Today, fall was making its rounds again. The leaves on the trees were a spectacle of crisp, bright colours. A pleasantly cold breeze stirred up the fallen leaves in great waves of oranges, yellows, and reds. Catra liked this time of year. Summers, while they got shorter every year, could get unbearably hot amongst the tall concrete buildings. Infected would be driven even more wild -if that were even possible- by the suffocating heat. Catra honestly couldn’t blame them.    
  
Fall was perfect for her. She could wear her hoodies and jeans and not feel like she was melting, but it wasn’t so cold that she had to layer up and restrict her movement. The rain was a bummer at first, but she’d grown to like that too.    
  
And it was raining now, coming down in sheets with the gusts of wind that were tearing up the colourful blankets beneath the trees. Catra had taken cover on one of the hundreds of balconies that lined the streets. Inside the apartment was barren, checked and pilfered through long ago by other survivors. She sighed, leaning up against the rusting metal fence that lined the balcony. She’d been out since early morning, and it was now the late afternoon. She’d wandered far from the safe zone, and she thought it would be unlikely that she’d be making it back that night. That was fine with her. She’d often disappear for a few days at a time. Juliet, who made all the run schedules, usually reamed Catra out for it. But she always came back with valuables, so the lectures were never too heavy.    
  
Also, it wasn’t wise to travel at night. Catra may not be afraid of much, but even she knew that travelling in the dark was a sure fire way to wind up bitten or dead. Infected. Especially the newer infected, had a tendency to stalk when it got dark. Maybe stalking wasn’t the right word. It was almost like their instincts from when they were human were still there, and they were a lot quieter unless they were actively chasing something. Catra had been blindsided more often than she cared to admit by an infected that hadn’t made a single sound until it was too late to get ahead of them.    
  
With the rain being what it was, Catra knew she’d better be trying to find some shelter. Still, it took her several minutes before she could convince her legs to move for her. The sound of the rain was cathartic.    
  
Catra was only two stories up, so she jumped over the railing. Even just the small drop sent a thrill through her, and she stood up with her heart thrumming. She took a deep breath of the cool air, the rain already soaking into her clothes and her hair. She shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold.    
  
Catra readjusted her satchel, and began making her way farther into the city.    
  
She wandered for longer than she should have. She passed lots of places she could have taken shelter in for the night, but her apathy allowed her to keep going. It was getting dangerously close to nightfall. Her better sense nagged to just hole up in an abandoned car, sleep on the back seat. Listen to the sounds of the rain on the metal roof and maybe actually get some decent sleep. She always slept better when it rained. Of course she still had nightmares, but they felt more bearable when she wasn’t waking up to complete silence -or worse- the impossible snoring of her bunk mates.    
  
Catra slowed to a stop, frowning. She heard something, but the gentle hissing of the rain made it hard to determine what exactly.    
  
Catra drew her knife, gripping the handle with practiced familiarity. She had a gun, but noise was a definite no when she was in the city limits. Infected would come flying out of everywhere the second the bullet left the chamber.    
  
She drew her eyes around slowly, carefully. She could see nothing out of the ordinary, and yet, her skin prickled with anticipation. Slowly, Catra crouched down and ducked behind one of the broken cars.    
  
Her breath began to mist, it was getting colder as the sun got nearer to sinking completely below the horizon. She did her best not to shiver.    
  
A block down the road, in the direction she’d been headed, she heard voices. Human voices. Catra let out a breath and peeked over the hood of the car to see who was making the noise.    
  
She almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She actually recognised some of these goons. If the stupid leather vests weren’t enough to give them away, the big buff dude standing at the forefront of their scouting group certainly did. She’d recognize that greasy red hair anywhere.    
  
It was Lashor and his gang. Catra watched as he swung around the bat that Catra had the good graces of becoming too familiar with years ago. He laughed with his buddies, probably about the last poor kid he’d beaten senseless for a trivial crime.    
  
Catra’s ribs ached with the memory.    
  
She sat up a little higher to try and get a better look. The metal of the car she was leaning on groaned in protest of the added weight. She hadn’t realized she’d been leaning on it. She dropped back to her knees when the group of men turned to look in the direction of the noise. She cursed herself for being thoughtless.    
  
Before any of them could come and find her, Catra looked for an escape. There were none that would keep her hidden from sight. She’d have to flush herself out to get away, and there was no telling if there were others hiding elsewhere. Even if there weren’t, their laughing and banter would have gotten the attention of the infected hanging out in the area. If she tried to run, and she might have to, they’d be on her ass faster than Catra could say ‘fuck’. Catra would be the first to admit she was a lot of things, but stupid was not one of them. Running and gunfire would be her last resorts.    
  
Catra chanced a glance around the lower bumper of the car again. Shit, they were coming this way. Catra adjusted the grip on her knife. Maybe she could surprise them. Knock one of them on their ass and hope that the confusion would be good enough cover for Catra to duck into one of the buildings and escape somehow that way. Maybe she could not attack them at all, bypass any interaction, and dart into a building right now. Another glance around reminded Catra that no, they’d see her and give chase. All the buildings she was nearest to were boarded up and sealed tight unless she bashed her way in. They’d all see her, and the noise would draw Screamers.    
  
Catra heard a scuffing noise behind her, a shoe dragging too low over the ground. She whirled around and was met with a blinding pain in her temple, and then darkness.    
  
The first thing she remembered upon waking up was the pounding headache. She groaned and tried to rub her temples, but found that her ankles and wrists were tied. She was laying on her stomach, the pressure felt uncomfortable with her empty knife sheath digging into her gut. Slowly she became more aware of her surroundings. It was dark, but not so dark she couldn’t see. The sun had set, clearly. She could see that much through the grimy windows of the room she was in. The light was coming from multiple lamps lit around the room.    
  
Catra grunted, and squirmed into a sitting position. It looked like she was in a bedroom of some kind. If it weren’t for the several layers of dirt and dust, Catra might think she’d been cast back in time to before the outbreaks. Everything looked untouched.    
  
Catra spotted her knife glinting in the flickering lamp light on a dresser on the opposite side of the room. Not far from it, her bag. Which had been dumped of its contents. Anything she’d scavenged lay out on display, along with her gun and all the rest of her supplies.   
  
Catra saw no one else in the room, so she began trying to wiggle her way over the floor towards the dresser. If she could get her knife, she could get free. Her hopes were dashed quickly though, because almost as soon as she’d made it to the base of the dresser and was in the process of trying to stand up, a man barged into the room.    
  
“Well, look who decided to wake up. Enjoy your beauty sleep?” He sneered. Catra didn’t recognise this one, but she definitely didn’t like him.    
  
“Thanks, it was refreshing. Pretty sure you could have used it more though, with that ugly mug.” Catra retorted cooly, fighting to keep her expression even.    
  
“Haven’t changed, have you girlie?” Catra’s eyes shifted to Lashor as he stepped in behind his comrade.    
  
Catra swallowed.    
  
“Thought you died,” His voice rumbled, even and calm. He sauntered across the dusty room towards Catra and knelt before her. “We have got to stop meeting like this.”    
  
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong.” Catra jerked her chin out of his grip when he tried to force her to look up into his face.    
  
Lashor chuckled, resting his arms on his knees. “You’re on my terf, aren’t you?”    
  
“Didn’t realize it belonged to you.”    
  
Lashor’s face remained impassive, but Catra got the impression that he was delighted to find someone to torment. She fought the urge to shudder as Lashor allowed his eyes to wander over Catra.    
  
In an effort to keep from thinking too much about Lashor looking at her like that, she tried to look anywhere else. Her eyes landed on a new toy hanging on his hip, coiled in a hoop menacingly. A whip. Where does someone even find a whip these days? Were there rodeo events she wasn’t aware of?    
  
Lashor got to his feet, waving a couple of his buddies over. “Let’s have some fun.” He growled, “Pin her down.”    
  
Catra attempted to scramble backwards and away from the man approaching her, as pointless as it was being all tied up, but one of them caught her ankles and she was dragged on her back to the center of the room.    
  
“Let me go you sadistic fuck!” Catra snapped, kicking her legs out. She smirked at the satisfying crunch the gang members face made as his nose broke.    
  
He cursed loudly and howled in pain. He dropped her, blood pouring from under his hands and through his fingers where he clutched his nose. Eyes watering from the pain and shock.    
Elatedly, Catra realized her ankle blindings had come loose and she rolled to her feet. Her hands were still firmly tied behind her back, but she could work with this. 

Lashor looked abundantly shocked. He lunged for Catra but she ducked under his arms and spun around to see him crash into the bed frame. The second lacky attempted to grab for her too but she sidestepped him as well. Size didn’t make up for speed, she supposed. Feeling cocky, Catra kicked the back of one of his knees for good measure. He hit the ground with a satisfying thump. 

Lashor had gotten up and was coming at her again. He swung his fist and Catra only narrowly managed to step backwards in time. She felt his knuckle graze the very tip of her nose. 

She laughed at him, backing into the dresser. Her fingers found the hilt of her knife and she quickly began working at the rope around her wrists. Lashor was tugging his whip free. Catra tried harder to free herself of the rope. 

Just as Lashor unraveled the long strip of leather, Catra broke free. 

Lashor drew his arm up. Catra lunged at him,knife in hand. 

The deafening crack of the whip met her ears just as Lashors scream did. 

The motion of the whip coming down had startled Catra into instinctively bringing her hand up, and Lashor’s face met the business end of her knife. 

Feathers and dust had exploded into the air. Catra stumbled backwards away from her aggressor. The whip had struck the bed, not her. 

Lashor roared in agony, his free hand touching his face. When he drew his hand away to look at the blood, Catra saw what she’d done. 

A long diagonal wound ran up one side of Lashor's face. Blood stained his features red and his expression was a twisted mix of fury and pain. She had definitely blinded his left eye. 

“It’s an improvement, if you ask me.” Catra spat at him. 

Lashor‘s grunts and moans grew into a dark laugh. Catra frowned, and took another step back. She met the wall. 

The two goons had recovered and were advancing on her, but Lashor held up his bloodied hand for them to halt. 

“She’s mine.” He growled, snapping the whip at his side. 

Catra had no idea how she was going to get out of this. 

Lashor drew his arm back and with a powerful motion, snapped it towards Catra’s legs. With a horrifying realization, Catra saw that the end had wrapped painfully tight around one of her ankles. With another skilled jerk of his arm, Catra was ripped off of her feet. 

Her forehead smacked hard against the wooden floors of the bedroom. It dazed her, and she struggled to recover. Before she had the time, another explosive crack of the whip and a burning inferno of pain erupted across her back. She felt her scream more than heard it. It tore out of her throat like a wild animal, savage and raw. 

Catra instinctively tried to curl into a ball, the burning sensation in her back gradually cooling to a hot, stinging ache. Her clothes felt damp. Blood? Catra couldn’t think. Didn’t have time to process before a second eruption of noise and pain shattered her thoughts like glass. She cried out again, coughing with the effort of it. 

Lashor laughed, she was vaguely aware of it. That sadistic bastard was probably getting off on this. Catra opened her eyes, could barely see through the tears of pain welling and clouding her vision. 

She watched him helplessly as he brought the whip down on her. Again, and again, and again. Each one was somehow worse than the last. 

She wasn’t sure when she stopped crying, stopped screaming, stopped feeling. Catra only knew when the anger burned so hot in her chest, she couldn’t feel anything else. Her fingers clutched her knife so tightly her knuckles turned white. In the reflection of the metal, Catra stared hard at Lashor. 

He seemed to be taking a break, laughing at her and with his buddies. Offering them a turn. They wouldn’t get it. She was done. 

Her muscles burned with the effort. Shook with exhaustion and blood loss. She almost cried out again in pain as she slowly unfurled herself from the ball she’d wound herself so tightly into. 

One of the dumbasses that Lashor called his friends ambled up to her and knelt in front of her face. Smirking down and revelling in the pain that was surely written all over her face. It was the one whose nose she had broken. Blood had dried in his stubble and on his shirt. 

Catra felt her breath quicken in her chest as he laid his hand on her shoulder. 

_ Don’t touch me. _ She fumed silently.  _ Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me. _ __   
  


“Looks like she’s still got some spirit in her, boss.” He grinned devilishly. Turning his head to look at Lashor, who Catra couldn’t see anymore. 

He kept his hand on her shoulder. 

“ _ Don’t  _ **_fucking_ ** _ touch me! _ ” Catra roared, summoning the strength to throw herself off the ground and into the man. With all the might she could muster, she ground her knife up under his jaw and into his skull. 

The motion was met with a sickening gurgling noise, his hands weakly gripping her arms for a moment before they fell limp at his sides. Blood rushed out of his mouth and drenched the hand Catra was clutching her knife in. 

With one swift motion, she yanked it back out of his skull and he fell to the side. Dead. 

Catra shakily stumbled to her feet. She felt the open wounds on her back move with her, but adrenaline coursed through her veins and she felt nothing but pure, unadulterated anger. 

She turned to stare at Lashor. Their eyes met. His expressions were ones of shock, grief, and finally settled on rage. 

“You  _ bitch _ .” 

Catra felt her mouth split into a shit eating grin. She beckoned towards herself with her knife. An invitation, and a threat. 

Lashor took her up on it. Lost in his grief for the death of his buddy, he forgot about the whip in his hand. He instead lunged towards her, hands outstretched to catch her and beat her to death. 

She didn’t give him the opportunity. She turned and leapt through the window. The sound of glass breaking around her was a memory that was crystal clear even now, years later. 

She had no idea how far the fall would be, only that she refused to die at the hands of that sadistic bastard. If she died, it was on her terms. She’d never told anyone this story before. She felt open and exposed. 

“I landed in a dumpster full of rotting trash out of sheer luck.” Catra explained, gesturing vaguely with her hand. “I only made it back to the safe zone because I was too stubborn to lay down and die. Took a few days though. Came up with some bullshit story about falling through some glass.” 

“I… think I remember that.” Adora’s voice sounded hollow. “You came back, half dead. They thought the infection was going to kill you. Glimmer ranted about it for days.” 

Catra was surprised to hear that, but she nodded. “Couldn’t sleep on my back for more than a month. It sucked.”

Adora stared into the flames, her hands wrapped so tightly around the stick she’s taken to use as a poker, that her knuckles were white. Like Catra’s fist around her knife. 

“Do you know what happened to him?” Adora asked, her voice still seeming hollow. 

“No, I haven’t seen him since.” Catra shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now, does it?” 

“I guess.” It took Catra a moment to realize that Adora’s voice wasn’t, in fact, hollow. It was monotone. Forced into a false calm. Her hands were shaking with barely contained anger. 

“Adora?” Catra shifted her weight to try and see into her companions eyes. Adora just further averted her gaze. 

“Hmm?” 

“Say what you’re thinking.” 

“You should have killed him.” Adora’s voice had begun to shake. Catra could see the effort of staying calm in the working of Adora’s jaw.

“I wouldn’t have won that fight.” Catra stated calmly, not eager to have Adora potentially explode on her. 

“If I ever see him, I will.” Adora’s words sounded less like a threat, more like a promise. 

Catra laughed to ease the tension. “It’s in the past, Adora. It’s not a big deal.” 

Adora took a deep, slow breath to steady herself. When she spoke again, her voice was even. Barely. “Is that what the scars are? On your back? From the whip?” 

Catra hesitated. “You’ve seen them?” Catra usually tried to keep them hidden. To avoid questions. 

“Uh. Not really, only a bit. The first night, I thought I saw your back while you changed. But it was dark and I thought it was just the light playing tricks. And then, sometimes your shirt rides up, and…” 

Catra looked down at her hands. Scarred from so many years as a survivor. “Yeah. That’s what they’re from.” 

“And… the threats. When people try to touch you.” Adora continued, and Catra felt herself tense up out of habit. 

“Yeah.” Catra ground out. 

“It reminds you of him…” Adora’s voice had softened, void of her previous fury now. 

Catra changed a glance up, expecting pity. She was met with… well she wasn’t sure. Adora wasn’t judging her, but beyond that she couldn’t read her expression. 

“Yeah.” Catra nodded. 

“If I asked, or let you know before I touch you in the future. Would that be better?” 

Catra blinked and sat up a little straighter. Completely taken off guard. “Why would you do that?” 

“I mean sometimes it can’t be avoided, Catra.” Adora’s mouth tilted unevenly. 

_ This smile is cute _ , Catra thought. 

“No, I just mean. Why would you care enough to ask? No one else does. I don’t expect you to.” 

Adora didn’t miss a beat. “Because I’m starting to like you, and I care about what you’re feeling.”

Catra almost physically reeled backwards from the shock. “Since when?” 

Adora’s lilted smile returned. “Just now.” 

“That’s unfortunate for you.” Catra huffed, turning away so Adora wouldn’t see the heat rising in her face. 

“Maybe. We’ll see.” Adora sighed and leaned back on her hands. “So. Would it help?” 

Catra brought her eyes back into the fire. Adora cared? She definitely hadn’t seen that coming. A few days ago they were still at eachothers throats in between long bouts of tense silence. She knew Adora was fundamentally a kind person, but Catra had never in a million years thought that Adora would be kind to  _ her _ . 

“Yeah. That would be nice.” Catra said finally, glancing up to catch the smile gracing Adora’s features. 

“Okay.” She nodded. 

Adora yawned, betraying her exhaustion, and informed Catra that she was going to take up Catra’s earlier offer to sleep first. Catra had just silently nodded and watched Adora roll onto her side. Back facing Catra. 

Catra knew she was asleep when her usual nightly twitching began. It wasn’t nearly as bad as Catra claimed, but she rolled her eyes anyways. Exasperated. 

Catra thought about Adora. About her dad, and her mom. About Lashor, and her scars. Thought about how somehow, Adora managed to find it inside of her to care about Catra, of all people. She wondered when Micah would come up again.

She didn’t think it would last long. She knew what she could be like. But right now, it felt nice. A warmth bloomed in her chest, chasing away the damp chill. 

Maybe she was beginning to care about Adora, too. 

A scary thought, but a welcome one


	10. Chapter 10

Adora was true to her word, she let Catra sleep in.    
  
Partway through the night, the gentle rain had turned into a torrential downpour. The sound of the rain hitting the forest floor had made Catra feel lethargic with its dull roar. She wished she had a watch that worked, so she could know when to wake Adora up.    
  
Eventually, Catra had begun to feel too tired to stay awake any longer. She prodded Adora’s back with the fire stick, accidentally staining the back of her jacket with charcoal. Catra winced, and decided she wouldn’t say anything to Adora about that. It would probably wash off in the rain anyways. Probably.    
  
Adora grunted, but sat up. Rubbing sleep from her eyes. Her hair had fallen out of its ponytail and sat loosely around her shoulders. Hiding the undercut that Catra had gotten used to. This was the first time since they’d been travelling together that Catra had seen Adora with her hair down. It was nice.    
  
“Is it my turn?” Adora slurred tiredly, slumping forward.    
  
Catra set the fire stick down and nodded. “Yep.”    
  
“Okay.” Adora yawned and stretched.    
  
Catra watched Adora shiver, and frowned. It had definitely gotten colder since the beginning of the night. She’d done her best to keep the fire stocked as high as she could, but there was very little wood dry enough to burn. They had to make what they had last until morning, or they really would be feeling late early winter’s bite.    
  
There was nothing she could really do about it though, so she laid down with her back to the flames. Letting the heat seep into her bones. The sound of the crackling embers and the scent of wood smoke relaxed her muscles. The gentle hushing of the wind and the rain in the trees pulled her into sleep.    
  
Waking up felt like she hadn’t slept at all, but she heard Adora gently calling her name instead of shaking her shoulders like she’d been doing for the past week. Catra grumbled and buried her face in her arms.    
“Catra.” Adora called a little louder, sounding amused. “Caaatraaa…”    
  
Catra groaned and opened her eyes. It was bright out. Brighter than she was used to waking up to. She felt more refreshed than she had been in a while.    
  
“Adora.” She grumbled, rolling onto her back and looking up into Adora’s unbearably perky features. “I’m awake.”    
  
“Okay.” Adora smiled and sat back down on her blanket. She’d already begun packing up her things. Not that she had much to pack.    
  
Catra laid on the cold ground for a few moments more, then forced herself upwards.    
  
“Ugh.” Catra moaned into her knees. Her body hurt from yesterday’s tumble off the rocks.    
  
“Pack your things, we should get moving.”    
  
Catra rolled her eyes, but slowly forced herself into action. Picking up her blanket, shaking it, and rolling it up as tight as she could so Adora could fit it into her bag. Then she kicked the coals of the fire so that they’d go out. Hissing in pain as an ember burned her shin.    
  
Adora looked up at Catra, unimpressed. “Be careful.”    
  
“Whatever.” Catra grumbled, rubbing her leg to lessen the pain. “Like you’re perfect.”    
  
Adora smirked at her. “Maybe I am.”    
  
“You wish.”    
  
Adora shook her head and shouldered her bag. They stood at the edge of the overhang, revelling in their dry clothes. Catra did not want to leave the shelter, but she was also beginning to go crazy with boredom. She had nothing to keep her mind occupied except for maybe talking with Adora. Even though she was beginning to like the admittedly not-as-annoying-as-she-thought girl, she wasn’t ready to spend a whole day just talking to her and waiting for the rain to stop.    
  
Beside her, Adora breathed into her cupped hands and rubbed them together. Catra shoved her hands into her hoodie pocket. It was cold, wet, and miserable. Today was going to be an absolute blast.    
  
Catra stepped out into the rain first. Luckily, the downpour from last night had lightened into a drizzle. Unfortunately, no sunlight meant that the day would stay just as cold as last night. Which meant tonight would be even colder. They really needed to find better shelter than an overhang.    
  
Adora seemed to have the same idea, because she voiced Catra’s thoughts.    
  
“We better hope we find one before it gets too dark.” Catra nodded, stepping over a damp log. The leaves slid under her boots. They’d have to be careful not to slip.    
  
“What if we don’t?” Adora fretted, sliding on the slick forest floor.    
  
Catra took a moment to ponder the worry, but came up with no real solutions. “I don’t know. We cuddle for warmth.”    
  
Adora laughed, and Catra was relieved she understood how unlikely that was. “It might just be a very unpleasant night for us both.”    
  
Catra hummed in agreement, and they fell into a comfortable silence. Continuing their hike through the valley for the next several hours. They saw and heard no infected, but they didn’t see any animals either. Except for birds and the occasional squirrel, it seemed that the rest of the forest critters had the sense to stay under cover today.    
  
Around midday, they stopped for a short break. Catra sat down on a fallen tree and shivered, water drilling from her bangs. Adora said nothing, no complaints or idle small talk. She sat down next to Catra and shivered as well. Their clothes were soaked through by now. Adora had been right to worry, they couldn’t go into the night like this. They’d die of hypothermia long before the sun even thought about rising again.    
  


Catra tensed when Adora slid a little closer to her. She wasn’t touching exactly, but she was close enough to feel body heat through their soaked clothes. She glanced up and was met with Adora’s pleading grey eyes. Catra sighed and rolled her eyes, nodding. Adora wasted no time in pressing their shoulders and thighs together. She didn’t push any farther than that, and Catra appreciated it. She also appreciated the body heat radiating through their contact.    
  
It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make Catra feel just a little less miserable. Adora shuddered and pulled her arms tight up against her chest.    
  
“We really need to find somewhere dry.” Catra grunted between shivers.    
  
Adora said nothing, her teeth chattering too hard to speak, but she did nod.   
  
Eventually, much to Catra’s disappointment, Adora got up and took all her warmth with her. Catra cast one last disdainful look at the depressingly grey sky, then got up to follow Adora.   
  
The next few hours were somehow even more miserable than the last. Catra’s shoulder had begun to ache from the cold, her feet had gone from numb to painful, and there wasn’t a single part of either of them that was anywhere close to dry. On top of all that, the temperature seemed to keep dropping. Every breath misted in front of their faces, and Catra thought she saw ice forming under the shrubbery they walked through.    
  
Catra was lost in her growing collection of miserable thoughts, focused most on just setting one foot in front of the other. So she didn’t notice when Adora stopped walking. Catra cursed as she collided with Adora’s back.    
  
Adora stumbled forward, but didn’t react. She turned to face Catra, smiling brightly. Catra wasn’t sure what shocked her more, the fact that she’d managed to stay on her feet, or that she seemed happy.    
  
“What?” Catra grumbled, shivering so hard that her voice rattled.    
  
“Look!” Adora pointed behind her with so much excitement, it was hard to remain grumpy.    
  
Catra cast her eyes over Adora’s shoulder and saw what had gotten her partner so worked up.    
  
“Is that..?”   
  
“A cabin!” Adora was practically bouncing up and down.    
  
Sure enough, mostly hidden by trees and undergrowth was what looked to be an abandoned wooden cabin. It was small, but from what Catra could see, the roof was still intact. That was all she wanted, to get out of the rain and warm up. 

Catra allowed Adora to drag her through the forest towards the cabin. Filled with vigor at the prospect of finally being dry. 

All of Catra’s excitement vanished when the river came into view, though. She practically skidded to a halt, sliding on the damp leaves and gripping a tree trunk to keep from falling into the swiftly flowing water. 

Adora came to a much calmer stop, propping her hands on her hips and contemplating this new obstacle. Surely Adora wasn’t going to make Catra cross that? 

“We’re going to have to cross.” Adora stated calmly, glancing back up at her. Adora’s optimistic expression changed to worry when she saw how hard Catra was gripping the bark. 

Catra cleared her throat and let go, but she didn’t come any closer to the water. “There’s no way we’re getting across that.” 

“It doesn’t look too deep, we'll be fine. Just try not to fall.” 

“Easy for you to say,” Catra snapped.

Catra didn’t want to admit that she couldn’t swim. That water on its own was terrifying, and she’d much rather stay on land. 

Adora frowned, her hands fell from her hips. Strands of her hair had come loose out of her ponytail and hung dripping in her eyes, but she didn’t seem to notice. 

“Come on, Catra. Don’t start this again.”    
  
Catra glared at her, and stubbornly stuck her tongue out.    
  
To her surprise, Adora laughed. The sound of it rang out over the rain and stirred a flutter inside Catra’s chest.    
  
Adora began making her way back up the bank to stand next to Catra, turning to face the water again with her hands on her hips. “It never occurred to me that you’d be afraid of anything.”    
  
“I am  **not** afraid of the water, Adora.” Catra grumbled, but couldn’t meet Adora’s eyes.    
  
“It’s okay to be afraid, but we do have to cross.” Adora gestured towards the cabin, which they could see much better now that they were at the river bank.    
  
“You can cross, I’ll just hang out here.”    
  
Adora smiled at Catra and nudged Catra’s boot with her own. “Come on, it’ll be fine.”    
  
Catra sneered at Adora, mocking her. “ _ It’ll be fine. _ Famous last words, Adora.”    
  
Adora rolled her eyes and began climbing back down the slope, glancing back up and giving Catra a hard stare until she detached herself from the tree and followed. Though, several cuss words were shed under her breath during the process.    
  
Adora stepped into the shallows and stopped to watch Catra, who still hung back a few feet from the water’s edge. Irrational fear gnawed at her insides and froze her feet to the spot. Her heart pounded in her ears, she could barely hear anything else over the sound of it. Catra’s shivering only seemed to get worse, and she was glad that she could at least blame the shaking on the cold and rain.    
  
Adora watched Catra silently for what felt like hours, and Catra began to wonder if Adora thought she was just being stupid. When they were in the city though, rivers and deeper bodies of water weren’t commonplace. Catra never had the need to learn how to swim, or get over her fear. It felt like a huge mistake now, but what could she really do about it right this second?    
  
“Catra.” Adora called gently, and Catra allowed her attention to be drawn from the swirling water a few feet away.    
  
“Come on,” Adora held her hand out as an offering.    
  
Catra bit back a snarky reply, Adora was only trying to help.    
  
Shakily, she took the few steps to close the gap between them and slipped her hand into Adora’s. Her fingers were cold, but then, so were Catra’s. Adora smiled encouragingly at her, and took a few more steps into the water.    
The water was freezing and Catra gasped as it flooded her boots.    
  
“Jesus-” Catra took a deep breath, having to close her eyes to collect herself. She felt Adora squeeze her hand gently.    
  
“It’s not that far, come on.”    
  
It took longer than it should have because Adora had to keep stopping to coax Catra along, especially when the water reached their waists. But that’s as deep as it got, and it got easier as it started to get shallower again. By the time they reached the opposite bank, Catra was gripping Adora’s hand so tightly that her own fingers hurt. She wondered if it hurt for Adora too, though the other girl didn’t complain.    
  
They finally reached the bank and Catra let out a shuddering breath, partially from the cold and mostly from the stress of having to be in the water.    
  
“We made it. I told you it would be fine.” Adora smirked, her lips tilting unevenly.    
  
Catra scowled and let go of Adora’s hand, rubbing her palm where the muscles ached. Also to rid it of the tingling that had manifested itself there. She noticed Adora flex her fingers, but still she didn’t complain.    
  
“Let’s just go see if anybody is home.” Catra grumbled, marching past Adora and climbing back up the bank. It was far steeper on this side and she had to use roots and branches as foot holds.    
  
Several minutes later, and one unfortunate slip in the mud for Adora, and they were standing on the front porch of the cabin. From what Catra could see, the place was abandoned. She saw no tracks leading to or from the doors. In fact, all the paths were horribly overgrown. The inside was dark, and dusty. At least from the windows. Of course, looking abandoned did not mean it was actually abandoned.    
  
Adora and Catra stood on opposite sides of the doorway, knives in hand, ready to step inside. Adora nodded, and Catra pushed the door open. They both winced when the hinges squeaked loudly. If there were infected inside, they definitely heard that.    
  
They waited a few seconds, listening, but only silence came to greet them. 

Adora hesitated, but Catra walked inside. It was dark and gloomy, and very, very dusty. But it was dry. God  _ fucking _ bless. 

Catra wandered farther into the cabin while Adora hissed her name from the door. Catra, of course, ignored her in favour of curiosity. 

“Catra!” 

She turned, aiming to curse at Adora for being so annoying. Instead, she was met with the bloody face of a Screamer leaping out at her from a hallway she hadn’t noticed on her way in. 

Catra tried to duck out of the way but she was too late. The Screamer gurgled and hissed but didn’t scream. That explained why it hadn’t made any noise when the door creaked. 

Older infected,  _ especially _ older infected, tended to have screamed themselves so hoarse that their vocal chords actually stopped working. Catra did not want to know what they looked like on the inside. Probably a shredded mess. 

She grappled with it, falling back onto the wooden dining table in the center of the cabin. Teeth snapped inches from her face, accompanied by rancid breath and the sickeningly familiar scent of blood. 

Catra cursed and tried to shove it off of her, but it had her pinned. All she could do was keep it far enough away so she didn’t get bit. Thankfully she didn’t have to put up her fight for long. 

Adora came to her rescue, yanking the screamer off and pulling it back against her chest. Adora’s arm wrapped around to hold it tight, and in her other hand was her knife. 

She silently slit its throat, and it collapsed into a twitching heap on the floor. Blood pooling slowly. 

Adora looked at it for a moment, then glared up at Catra. Clearly pissed, though Catra didn’t know what for. 

“Thanks.” Catra huffed, sitting up and rubbing her shoulder. 

“No problem.” Adora grumbled. 

Catra frowned. “What’s got you so worked up?” 

Adora’s displeased expression deepened and Catra fought against the urge to shrink away. Something about her expression made Catra feel almost ashamed, but she didn’t feel she had a reason to be. 

“I just wish you’d be more careful, that’s all.” Adora sighed heavily and the anger melted from her face. Catra breathed a quiet sigh of relief. 

“I thought it was empty.” Catra shrugged, hopping off of the table and starting to pace around, just checking things out. 

There wasn’t much here, all very standard cabin attire. A couch in front of a stone fireplace. Lots of taxidermy, most of which was covered in cobwebs. Dated and cracking landscape paintings. The kitchen was tiny and open to the living room, which also shared the oak table that Catra had been on top of moments ago. 

“Yeah, well it wasn’t. You would have seen that if you stopped to listen.” 

Catra glanced over her shoulder at Adora, who now stood shivering near the kitchen sink. 

“But I’m fine, see? And so are you.” Catra held her arms out to make her point. “No bites.” 

“Just. Please try to be more careful.” 

“Whatever, Princess.” Catra rolled her eyes and peeked down the hallway. It seemed that there was only one bedroom, and maybe a bathroom. Hopefully a bathroom. She did not want to have to go pee in the rain. 

Adora grumbled in the kitchen, shucking off her wet jacket and sweater. 

Her long sleeved shirt underneath clung to Adora’s skin, and Catra tried hard not to stare at all of her lean muscles being highlighted by the wet fabric. Adora stood facing the sink, wringing her clothes out. Adora’s back was… Impressive.

Catra didn’t realize she was staring until Adora turned around and looked at her. “What?”

“Just tired.” Catra lied quickly, glancing away. 

“Well with four solid walls around us, we can probably both get a full night’s rest tonight.” Adore smiled, bringing her damp clothing over to the empty fireplace. 

“I’ll take the couch.” Catra gestured down the hall. “There’s only one bedroom.” 

Adora looked mildly surprised. “Oh… are you sure?” 

“Anything is better than sleeping on the ground again.” 

“Agreed.” Adora nodded. “I’m going to go see if there’s any wood stored outside. See if we can get a fire going to dry our clothes. And us.” 

Catra nodded, then began peeling off her own layers of soaked clothing as her companion left. 

She dropped her sweater into the pile of Adora’s clothing and started to take off her tank top, but stopped herself. Yeah, Adora knew about the scars on her back. But she didn’t know about the scars on her chest. 

She smoothed the tank back down, much to her own discomfort. Maybe there was some old clothing here that they could at least sleep in if nothing else. 

Catra made her way down the hall into the darkened bedroom. It smelled even mustier in here than the rest of the place did, but it was just as unoccupied as the rest of the place. 

Catra struck gold as soon as she began rooting through the dresser. Grinning to herself as she pulled out sweaters, flannel shirts, a couple pairs of pyjama pants that she figured would probably be too big but at least they were dry, and socks. Gloriously dry socks. It was all just a little moth eaten but she didn’t care. It was dry, and probably warm. Adora would be happy about it, she was sure. 

Beaming and happy about her find, Catra marched back into the living room just as Adora was struggling back in through the front door, her arms full of wood. 

“Hey-“ Adora stumbled and dropped a log. “There was a hut around the back that looked like— just so much wood. It must have protected it all from rotting. Oh. Is that..?”

She’d spotted what Catra was carrying in her arms, and Catra just nodded with a satisfied smirk. Adora hurried to set her wood down by the fireplace, then practically skipped up to Catra. 

She laid it out on the couch and Adora picked a few articles to put on. Catra took some for herself, and they both disappeared into the bathroom and bedroom to change. 

Catra had never shed clothing so fast in her entire life. Eagerly putting on the soft, warm, luxuriously dry clothing. She couldn't help but run her hands over the soft material. Other than some dust, it was all pretty clean. Another thing Catra hadn’t allowed herself to miss too much was being in clean clothing. Neither Adora nor Catra smelled too fantastic after a week and a half of travelling. 

And of course, just as Catra had suspected, it was all just a little too big. Actually, these clothes kind of dwarfed her. But she didn’t mind. 

Catra allowed herself a moment of privacy to enjoy the warmth that was beginning to return to her. Though she was still plenty cold, at least her clothes weren’t wet anymore. She took her hair out of its ponytail and wrung it out onto the floor. Why should she care? No one lived here. She ran her fingers through it to comb out the tangles, then threw it back up. 

She joined Adora again back out in the living room. Adora seemed to fit the clothing better than Catra, but it was still too big on her too. Though, Adora didn’t seem to mind. She seemed to be in a lot better spirits. She was busy hanging their clothes up on a wire running above the fireplace. 

“I feel so much better.” Catra sighed, dropping onto the couch. A cloud of dust rose around her. Gross. 

“Oh my god,” Adora practically moaned, propping their boots up against the stones so they’d dry as well. “I know. I thought I’d never be dry again.” 

Catra pulled Adora’s bag into her lap and dug through it for the lighter and matches. Tossing them to Adora when she held her hands out. 

“No more travelling in the rain without proper gear.” Catra stated firmly. 

“Maybe there are things hidden here.” Adora shrugged, stooping lower to begin lighting the fire. “Like jackets, at least. 

“Maybe. Seems like this place hasn’t been touched since the beginning.” 

“Lucky us.” 

Catra hummed her agreement, allowing herself to sink into the soft couch cushions. She missed cushions. She’d been sleeping on floors, dirt, and rocks. Everything about this cabin screamed relief to Catra.    
  
Adora stood up once she was done with the fire, brushing dust and ash off of her hands. She looked exhausted, but her eyes landed on the body still laying in the kitchen. “We should probably deal with that.”    
  
Catra groaned, “I guess.”    
  
Catra hauled herself off of the couch with great effort, and helped Adora to carry the body outside. They didn’t go far, unwilling to get themselves even a little wet again. They left it just off the side of the porch, partially hidden by the underbrush. Catra couldn’t help feeling a twinge of guilt, that had been a person once, after all.    
  
They didn’t linger, making a beeline back inside and shutting and locking the door. Adora suggested checking all the windows and doors before they settled down again, so they did that too. Locking everything they could lock, and blocking off anything that they couldn’t.    
  
Catra meandered back into the main room of the cabin and collapsed back onto the couch, while Adora began rifling through her bag and pulling out their blankets. Catra watched her as she found places to hang those up as well.    
  
“Adora.” Catra sighed, tucking one of her arms behind her head.    
  
“Hmm?”    
  
Catra felt a smile twitch her lips. “Are you capable of just relaxing?”    
  
Adora hesitated, then smiled back sheepishly. She didn’t respond, but she looked down the hall towards the bedroom. She didn’t move though and Catra raised an eyebrow at her.    
  
“If you want to go to sleep, then go sleep.”    
  


“I- Yeah. I mean. I will.” Adora rubbed her arm anxiously, turning her attention to the fire. “I just-”    
  
Catra propped herself up on her elbows. “What?”    
  
“Don’t make fun of me.”    
  
“I won’t make fun of you. Now, what?”    
  
“I can’t sleep alone.”    
  
Catra made an ‘O’ shape with her mouth and cast her gaze down the hall to the bedroom door.    
  
“Why don't you drag the mattress out here then? It’s warmer here anyways. With the fire, and all…”    
  
Adora pursed her lips, not meeting Catra’s eyes. “I could, yeah.”    
  
Catra wondered if Adora was still feeling embarrassed, but she really didn’t see why. Lots of survivors had to adapt to sleeping in a room full of other people. Some even came to rely on it for a sense of security. Catra herself wasn’t one of them, but she’d gotten used to sleeping with Adora nearby and couldn’t say she would be over the moon to suddenly have to sleep alone either.    
  
Instead of trying to convince Adora this was a good idea, Catra once again got off of her comfortable position on the couch and walked back to the bedroom. She dutifully pulled all the blankets off the bed and shook them free of dust, deposited them on the living room floor, then returned for the mattress.    
  
The whole time, Adora watched her from her sheepish position in the corner. Catra ignored her, and remade the mattress on the floor. Near the couch, but not so close that Catra would accidentally step on Adora if she got up through the night.    
  
“I’m sorry.” Adora murmured, catching Catra’s attention again.    
  
“It’s really fine, Adora. I get it. Now get some sleep. Please. You look like shit.”    
  
This earned a laugh, and Catra smiled.    
  
“Speak for yourself.” Adora retorted, settling onto the mattress and tugging the blankets over her legs.    
  
“Hey, I rock the sleep deprivation look.” Catra sniffed, doing her best to look offended.    
  
“You rock any look.” Adora mumbled, already falling asleep.    
  
Catra’s heart skipped, but she ignored it. “Whatever. G’night, Princess.”    
  
Adora mumbled something that may have been ‘goodnight’ but it was too muffled by sleep and the pillows. Catra rolled her eyes and pulled another blanket over herself. Adora was right though, Catra was just as tired as she was. 


	11. Chapter 11

The next week was gruelling, to say the least. 

The weather only got worse, not better. Sure, the rain would stop for the most part during the day, though there were intermittent showers. But the nights always dropped below freezing now. 

Catra had enjoyed the luxuries of the abandoned cabin for two whole days, refusing to leave the comfort of it until the torrential downpours stopped. But Adora had begun to get antsy at the idea of not making progress, so Catra had eventually caved. It helped that while they dug around for supplies, Adora had found actual jackets. They weren’t built for warmth per se, but they were waterproof. Catra called it a miracle, and Adora had laughed at her. 

The memory made Catra feel warm. 

On top of the jackets, they ditched their old muddy clothes and replaced them with the warmer fleece, flannel shirts, and pants they’d found. Digging around the place had revealed there were indeed clothes that fit them better. They were warmer than what they already had, too. 

They found some food too, much to Catra’s relief. They’d run out of their own, and to be honest, Catra was getting a little sick of beans. 

So, on the morning of the third day, they’d stepped outside and set off again. In the depressing drizzle, but safe under their jackets. Mostly. Catra’s feet still got wet after a while. 

On this particular morning, they were hiking along the river. She hated being so close to the water, but Adora had studied their map and found that following the river was probably going to be shorter than following the highways because it cut almost right through the middle. Unfortunately, that meant a lot of nature walking. 

Catra supposed it wasn’t as bad as it could be, after all there seemed to be a lot of smaller vacation houses scattered around. They seldom went inside, as they almost always heard infected scuffling about inside the walls. But there were sheds, and boathouses, and garages. So that’s where they often sheltered for the night. 

Catra yawned, stepping over another cluster of river stones that had been pushed up onto the banks by seasons upon seasons of snow melt. They’d woken up to sheets of ice coating absolutely everything this morning, accompanied by real actual sunlight. It made everything around them look like crystal and glass. Glinting magically in the dim morning sunlight. Catra thought it was like something straight out of a surrealist painting.

“Oh, wow.” Adora had mumbled, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Catra passed her a cup of tea, one of the things they’d found in the abandoned cabin. Catra had also scored her own bag to store things in. They technically didn’t need the tea, but Adora had let slip that she missed hot drinks, and so Catra had taken it. Under the guise that it would probably help fend off the growing cold. 

Adora smiled at Catra. Soft and small and sipped at it. Catra had stared just a little too long , then nodded and muttered an ever graceful; “Whatever, Princess.” 

Adora was a few steps ahead, gradually making her way up the seemingly endless slope. She was slow, but Catra couldn’t blame her. It was icy, and a slip and fall down this hill and into the river could mean death. A fact that Catra tried very hard not to think about. 

To distract herself, Catra attempted to break the silence. 

“So. Other than soccer, and being freakishly strong.” Adora paused long enough to give Catra a dirty look. Catra just grinned. “Got any secret talents?” 

Adora didn’t speak for a long moment, pondering her reply. 

“I don’t know. I can play guitar, I guess. I’m not the best at it. Uh. My dad was teaching me, and I kinda just. Kept it going.” 

Catra did a double take. “You play guitar? I never would have guessed that.” 

“The only people who know are Glimmer and Bow.” Adora shrugged. “And I guess you too, now.” 

“I wanna hear you play sometime.” Catra stated, feeling bold. 

Adora hesitated, looking back at the progress they’d made. “No you don’t.” 

Catra scoffed and caught up to Adora, falling into stride with her. “I’ll decide that for myself. You don’t have to, I’d just like you to prove it.” 

Adora frowned, “You don’t believe me?” 

“Princess,” Catra sighed, “you have the elegance of an elephant. I’ll believe it when I see it.” 

Adora rolled her eyes, and they continued their hike in silence for another few minutes. Catra tried hard not to look down at the river. 

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen any wildlife.” Adora commented, pausing to catch her breath. 

Catra took a moment to look around, and felt her eyebrows furrow slightly. She was right, Catra didn’t even see any birds flitting about among the tree branches. 

“Huh.” Catra breathed, resting a hand against a large boulder. “You’re right.” 

Adora hummed, her grey eyes scanning the trees around them. “It’s quiet.” 

Catra nodded, though she wasn’t sure how Adora could really tell. The dull roar of the river below masked everything, even silence. 

Adora finally looked back at Catra, and she understood now that she was feeling anxious. Not uncommon with Adora, she was a little bit of a worrier. Though Catra was learning quickly enough that Adora’s worries weren’t usually founded on nothing. 

“There are lots of reasons for it being quiet out here, Adora.” Catra tried to comfort. “There could be a storm coming. We could be making too much noise.” 

Adora rubbed the back of her neck, clearly not feeling any more at ease. “There could be a predator.” She added, and Catra reluctantly nodded. 

“That too.” She agreed. “You’re worried about infected?” 

Adora’s silence answered her question. Now that Adora had brought it up, she began to worry as well. They hadn’t seen any in a while. At least, not any that hadn't gotten themselves trapped in one of the vacation homes. 

“Okay, well. I don’t see any right now. We’re probably fine.” Catra stepped closer to Adora and hesitantly touched her forearm. 

Adora glanced down at her hand and then up at the trees again. Swallowing and taking a deep breath. Her expression had hardened into the one she wore when she was thinking deeply about something. Catra waited patiently, as she knew better than to try and draw it out before Adora had formed her thoughts into something coherent. 

“I’m thinking,” Adora started slowly, her stormy eyes flitting around. Searching for something that Catra couldn’t see. “We should find somewhere to shelter, just to be safe.” 

Catra frowned, “Adora, we’re the only ones out here. I-“ 

“Catra, please. I just. Have this horrible feeling that something is wrong.” The pleading look in Adora’s eyes made Catra give in. 

“Okay. Fine.” She glanced up the slope and brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the brightness of the overcast sky. It was brighter than one might think, looking directly at them. “Do you want to head up?” 

Adora nodded, following Catra’s gaze. “Yeah.” 

Catra adjusted the bag on her shoulders and started upwards. The slope was steeper than she’d like, and muddy. So they both kept slipping. By the time they reached the top, they were both breathless and had a healthy layer of mud on their hands and knees. Twice she’d had to grab Adora as the other girl fell. Once, Adora had grabbed Catra’s shoulder to steady her. She’d apologized for touching without asking first, but Catra found she hadn’t minded too much. Her heart had been left pounding from the shock of almost falling all the way down the slope and into the water. And maybe a little from Adora’s strong grip. 

Catra held her hand out to pull Adora up over the last little bit, and then they stood for a moment to catch their breath again. Catra took the time to check out their surroundings.   
  
There was still nothing all that significant to worry about, from what Catra could see. It was a mostly empty overgrown field, lined with trees. If Catra squinted, she could see that there used to be some kind of road running through it, but the plants had long since grown over it and destroyed it. Still, now that Adora had pointed it out, Catra couldn’t help but feel as though something were wrong too.    
  
Adora stepped up to Catra’s side, closer than she needed to be, she felt. But understood it was only because Adora was feeling anxious. Their shoulder’s brushed, and Catra looked to her travelling partner. Adora’s eyebrows were furrowed, staring out over the grass. A breeze blew through the clearing and gently rustled the stalks, blowing over like silver waves through the yellowing blades. Still no bird song though, no squirrels, no deer. Nothing. It was like a wasteland up here.   
  
“Come on,” Catra coaxed, instinctually whispering and nudging Adora forward. “Let’s see what we can find.”    
  
Adora hesitated, shaking her head. “I don’t think we should go that way.”    
  
Catra pursed her lips and stared back out over the grass. “It’s really the only way to go, Adora. Unless you want to backtrack or lose the river.”    
  
“Catra, I know I sound ridiculous right now, okay?” Adora pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly frustrated. “I just-”    
  
“Adora, it’s fine.” Catra rested a hand on Adora’s shoulder. “I agree, something isn’t right.”   
  
Adora lowers her hand and blinks at Catra, evidently surprised that Catra agreed with her. “You do?”    
  
Catra rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Yes. But this forest is so overgrown, I’m worried we’ll get turned around if we don’t keep close to the river. Your map is useless without landmarks and we don’t have a compass. We’ll get lost.”    
  
Adora ran her hands over her hair, knocking loose a couple strands. “Yeah, I know.” She sighed, her voice heavy with hesitance.    
  
Catra nodded towards the other end of the clearing and took the first steps into the grass. Above her, the sky is an endless expanse of grey, rolling cloud. Maybe there really was a storm coming, but it wasn’t dark enough to be hitting them any time soon.    
  
Behind her, still needlessly close, Adora stepped quietly into the grass. Her hand rested on the handle of her knife. They fell into an uneasy silence, though for once it wasn’t because it was following an argument. Not that they happened often anymore. If they did argue, it was over trivial things. It was really more of an easy banter, really.    
  
Catra frowned at the realization. When had the arguments stopped? It was so easy being around her now. Was even coming to enjoy it. She glanced back at Adora once more, and was met with a quizzical expression.    
  
“What?” Adora asked quietly, self consciously touching her hair, brushing the loose strands over her ear.    
  
“Are we friends?” Catra asked, then felt the blood drain from her face. She hadn’t meant to voice that out loud. Adora always seemed to draw her thoughts out of her though.    
  
Adora raised her eyebrows, her mouth opening but nothing seemed to come out.    
  
Catra looked forward again, feeling stupid. Of course they weren’t friends. Why would Adora want to be friends with her?    
  
“Nevermind.” Catra forced out, trying to sound nonchalant.    
  
An unexpected wave of self hatred washed over her in the wake of Adora’s silence. Catra knew she wasn’t easy to like. Knew she was abrasive, hurtful, angry. Selfish and undeserving. If she were Adora, Catra wouldn’t want to be friends either.    
  
“Of course we are.” Adora’s voice broke through her thoughts. “Did you think we weren’t?”   
  
Catra wasn’t sure what was worse. Imploding on herself in the wrath of her insecurities, or talking about her insecurities with the person she was insecure about.    
  


She was glad Adora could only see the back of her head right now. She felt heat rise to her face, and she swallowed. “I wasn’t sure.”    
  
“Did I make you feel like-”    
  
“No, no.” Catra interrupted, turning to face Adora. “I just haven’t had that many friends.”   
  
Adora’s face softened into a warm smile, and Catra felt butterflies stir inside her with the breeze.    
  
“So, you like me?”   
  
Catra felt her face go warm again. “I do  _ not _ like you.”    
  
“Yeah,” Adora’s smile shifted to a cocky smirk. “You do.”    
  
“Ugh.” Catra rolled her eyes, shoving Adora’s shoulder playfully and turning back around to keep walking. Adora laughed and jogged a couple steps to fall in next to Catra.    
  
“I like you too.” Adora bumped their shoulders together.    
  
Catra grumbled under her breath, and looked away to hide her own smile.    
  
Adora opened her mouth again to say something else, but she fell short. Her eyes were drawn upwards as soft white flakes began to fall from the sky. Catra looked up as well as the flurries gradually began to thicken.    
  
“Maybe you were right about the storm.” Adora sighed, shoving her hands into her pockets.    
  
“Maybe.” Catra wrinkled her nose when a flake landed on it. She was halfway through the motion of wiping it off when she noticed Adora staring, her cheeks reddening a little.    
  
Catra raised a brow at her, “Can I help you?”    
  
Adora cleared her throat and quickened her steps.    
  
Catra followed behind her, albeit a little confused. She didn’t ask though, not sure she wanted to know.    
  
Adora led them to the far side of the clearing and back into the tree line, following the ridge along the river. The snow continued to fall through the gradually thickening branches, dusting their surroundings with a thin layer of white. It settled in Adora’s hair, on her jacket, and her bag. Catra imagined a similar thing was happening to her, but she didn't feel it. She was too distracted by the growing tenseness of Adora’s shoulders, how she flinched at every sound. Catra had stepped on a twig by accident, and watched Adora skip forward a few steps. Catra said nothing though, she wished she could help Adora relax a little but she had no comforting words to offer. The silence of the area was getting to her, too.    
  
She kept seeing shapes moving in the corners of her eyes, but every time she looked directly at them, there was never anything there. A few times, Catra thought she heard voices from between the trees, but it was just the wind through the branches above them.    
  
Catra was beginning to hope they found somewhere to weather out the brewing storm soon, if for no other reason than to give them both some peace of mind.    
  
Catra pushed her way through a particularly thick patch of undergrowth, cursing under her breath, and bumped into Adora’s back. Grabbing the other girl’s shoulder to steady herself, she looked up.    
  
“Oh,  _ fuck me _ .” Catra muttered to herself. Adora was frozen, eyes wide with growing terror. A cold stone had dropped in Catra’s stomach, and she slowly pulled Adora down to hide in the long grass.    
  
It was a horde, ambling about and bumping into each other in another, smaller ravine just a hundred feet or so in front of them. It spanned far past what Catra could even see. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them. The wind carried their noises away from the pair of them, which explained how they hadn’t heard them before now.    
  
However, now that they stood in sight of them, Catra could hear it. The low, collective gurgling noises of the mass of Screamers in front of them. She’d never seen a horde so huge in her life. Not even the one that had taken down Thaymor had been like this.    
  
Catra unwillingly dragged her eyes from the infected and to Adora, who now crouched in the long grass next to her. Adora’s eyes were still wide, but Catra could see the gears turning. Neither of them said anything, they couldn’t. Not without risking the infected’s very much unwanted attention.    
  
Catra glanced behind them, where they’d come from. They’d have to go back, they didn’t have much choice right now. Back, and down, back towards the river. But then they ran the risk of getting cornered.    
  
Adora touched Catra’s shoulder gently, and she winced. Not expecting the touch, but understanding Adora couldn’t vocalize to ask permission first. She looked back at her friend.    
  
Adora pointed up, and Catra followed her finger. She felt her shoulders slump. Birds. Crows or ravens, it looked like. Though Catra didn’t know the birds well enough to tell the difference. Probably crows. Following the horde for their kills and scraps. They were lining the trees like an omen.    
  
If they moved too much, they’d set off the flock and the noise would most certainly draw the horde’s attention. It was a miracle that they hadn’t already. In other words, they were truly and royally fucked.    
  
Adora bit her lip and tensed her muscles like she was going to stand, Catra frowned at her.    
  
“I have a plan.” Adora murmured as quietly as she could, leaning in towards Catra to say it into her ear.    
  
Despite the cold and the situation, Adora’s hot breath against her skin brought heat to Catra’s face. It didn’t distract her though, thankfully. She wrinkled her nose in distaste.    
  
“You have a plan.” Catra repeated, deadpanning. “Great, what is it?”    
  
They both winced as one of the closer infected chirped, and they sunk lower into the grass to avoid being seen.    
  
“I’m going to draw them away.” Adora whispered, grey eyes flitting between Catra and the horde. “There’s a house on the other side of them. I saw it before we ducked,. Get to it. I’ll circle around and meet you there.”    
  
“Adora,  _ what the fuck _ ? No!” Catra hissed angrily through her teeth. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”    
  
“Do you have a better idea?” Adora gestured, frustrated, at the horde. “We can’t go back, the birds will alert them. We can’t just stay here, they’ll find us eventually. I’m fast. I’ll be fine.”    
  
“Don’t be a fucking hero, Adora.” Catra snipped, trying hard to keep her voice low.    
  


“What else would you suggest?”    
  
Catra closed her eyes to keep from screaming. She was forced to open them again though when her mind formed the gut wrenching image of the horde catching Adora. Adora, the first person she’d cared about in a long time. Catra was not about to watch her get ripped apart by a group of blood-thirsty Screamers.    
  
“I’m faster.” Catra blurted, and Adora’s face went pale.    
  
“ _ No.” _ She whispered firmly.    
  
They flinched again as another infected chirped and gurgled nearby. They were beginning to wander too close to their hiding spot. They didn’t have a lot of time.    
  
“See you there, Princess.” Catra smirked, though she felt no where near as confident as she sounded. Adora reached out to grab Catra’s arm, but it was too late. Catra was off like a shot. Whooping and hollering to get the horde’s attention, and then taking off through the trees. Making as much noise as she could as she ran. The birds helped by taking off, beating their wings and cawing their alarm into the sky.   
  
Adora didn’t call after her, but a glance over her shoulder revealed that Adora had her hand clamped over her mouth to keep from making noise. Eyes wide, terror shining even as Catra got further and further away.    
  
Catra’s thoughts left Adora though as the screaming of the horde roared through the forest. The sound of thousands of footsteps tearing after Catra, a dull thunder.    
  
Catra had no idea how she was going to survive this. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heeey :) cliff hanger time! 
> 
> Anyways I just wanted to take a hot sec to announce that i post art for this au, and catradora in general on my art tumblr and twitter, both by the handle draqiin :) pls validate me 
> 
> Also thank you so much for continued support of this story, I was really unsure anyone would like this au at all but i'm so glad that y'all like it

**Author's Note:**

> I post a lot of art for my au's / she-ra in general on my tumblr and twitter accounts, both handles are Draqiin! Pls check it out/ give me a follow vuv
> 
> Playlist : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4wHXmtMIigKlZ3GrFWTLqF?si=DKJLfLWlRp-5coVKotzCjw


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